The effect of gamification on the success and attitude of the 5th grade mathematics course

The aim of this research is to investigate whether gamification has an effect on the academic achievement and attitudes of the mathematics course or not. In this research which carried out with this purpose, education process of "Fractions" with includes gamification elements was examined due to clarify the effect of mathematics teaching and student motivation. This research has been conducted with mixed method which includes quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test groups which is one of the experimental research methods, is used in this research as quantitative method. Quantitative data were collected using the achievement test and attitude scale. Qualitative data were collected by interview method with the help of semi-structured form. Participants of this research consisted of 46 students among 5th grade students group of a Province in West Black Sea region of Turkey in 2018-2019 academic year. Participants were divided into two groups which consisted of 23 students. These two groups have equal level of mathematics achievement and attitude. The research was completed in 6 weeks in the 2018-2019 academic year. In these 6 weeks, the teaching of "Fractions" to experimental and control groups was continued with the constructivist teaching approach. In addition, the teaching process in the experimental group is equipped with the elements of gamification which are designed by the researcher. A software was used in the improvement process of achievement test to analyse items. SPSS package program is used in the analysis of pre-test and post-test scores for both achievement test and attitude scale. Descriptive analysis method was employed for the analysis of results data which emerged from interviews. Significant statistical difference is observed in achievement test results between the experimental and control groups in favour of experimental group. According to this difference, gamification has a positive effect on academical achievement in 5th grade mathematics course. The statistical difference which occurred in achievement test could not observed in attitude scale results in both groups. Attitude test results in pre-test and post-test compared for each group in itself but there is no significant statistical difference observed in the results again. Thus it is observed that the students of experimental group was more enthusiastic, curious and ambitious in gamified educational process than the students of control group. This study showed that the gamified educational process is considered as enjoyable according to general opinion of the students in experimental group. Keywords: Gamification, Gamification of Education, Gamification Elements and Design, Mathematics Teaching, Gamification and Mathematics