Gamification Trend in Students’ Mathematics Learning Through Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The gamification approach has the potential to improve learning performance and motivate students to study mathematics. Unfortunately, there is not much further discussion regarding gamification in a systematic mathematical context. This study is aimed at identifying the frequency of gamification studies in math education based on current year trends; the tendency of the country to apply gamification studies; identifying groups of respondents according to the level of study; and identifying the impact of gamification approaches on students' learning in terms of affective, cognitive, and psychomotor. A total of 21 empirical studies were selected from the systematic literature based on the Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model. This model involves four phases, namely identification, filtering, qualification (eligibility), and entry (included), using key databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC. The findings show that gamification studies in math education set the most records in 2021. The trend of national analysis reports that the study of gamification in mathematics education is most studied in the country of Spain. Moreover, the most dominant sample of this research involves elementary school students. This study also reported the impact of gamification focused on both affective and cognitive aspects. The findings of the study have the potential to better measure the impact of gamification from other aspects and are given reference to the Ministry of Education (MOE), schools and teachers, especially in the mathematical context. These findings can be expanded by focusing on the impact of gamification in terms of psychomotor domains as well as diversifying different groups of respondents.