The effect of gamification on improving students' environmental literacy

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Environmental crises are threats to all creatures and the balance of nature, and their root is human activity. Therefore, the current change in human behavior will be able to solve environmental problems. The purpose of environmental education is increasing people's sensitivity to events and changes in the physical, biological, social, economic, social, and political environment and their effects on the environment so that the ability to recognize environmental issues can acquire the necessary skills in devising methods and tools to protect the environment and solve its problems. Currently, gamification is one of the techniques that can be used to increase students' environmental literacy. Gamification is a new method that has been translated into ‘playmaking’ in some sources and means the use of playful elements and thoughts in areas that are not the nature of the game. Gamification has been one of the topics discussed in recent years, which can be used to increase efficiency and user interaction. Properly applied gamification in educational environments will lead to better learning of students. This study investigated the impact of gamification on the promotion of environmental literacy of the first-year elementary school students in TehranMethods: The research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design along with the experimental group. The statistical population included all male students whose age ranged between 6-7 years, who were studying in the district 15 of Tehran in the academic year of 2021-2022. With multi-stage cluster random sampling method, 60 participants were included in the sample and 30 people were randomly assigned to the experimental group; They have received part of the concepts of environmental literacy through gamification-based education for 12 sessions. The questionnaire was devised by the researcher and its formal and content validity was confirmed by the experts. Also, its reliability was reported using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86, indicating acceptable reliability. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS 24 software.Findings: The results of the data showed that gamification had a significant and positive effect on promoting environmental literacy (F = 1.57, 70.6 and P = 0.001). Also, gamification made a significant impact in promoting environmental literacy (water consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), electricity consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), gas consumption management (F = 0.001, 04 F1.57/58 and P=0.001), waste management (F1.57, 40.8 and P=0.001), forest preservation (F1.57, 337.63 and P=0.001), animal protection (F1.51.06) ,57 and P=0.001) among the students of the first year of elementary school.Conclusion: Taking into account the effective role of gamification in improving environmental literacy (water consumption management, electricity consumption management, gas consumption management, waste management, forest conservation and animal conservation), it can be concluded that the use of gamification in education is a new approach that has caused a wide transformation in the education system and increased the hope of the effectiveness of learning environmental concepts and related literacy among the students.

Keywords

• education
• gamification
• environmental literacy
• first grade