Integrating Social–Emotional Learning Into Gamified Flipped Classrooms: Impacts on Emotion Regulation, Achievement and Communication Tendency

ABSTRACT Background Social–emotional practices are crucial in today's educational landscape, fostering students' emotional intelligence, resilience and interpersonal skills. Integrating these practices into the gamified flipped classroom approach creates an enriched learning environment. However, there exists a notable research gap regarding the specific implementation and empirical evaluation of social–emotional learning (SEL) strategies within the gamified flipped classroom model specifically tailored for higher education settings. Objectives This study examined the effects of integrating SEL practices into a gamified flipped‐classroom approach (GFLA) on students' emotional regulation, learning achievement, communication, and collaboration tendencies. Methods A mixed‐methods quasi‐experimental design was employed, involving 36 students enrolled in a study skills course at a university in Vietnam. Participants were assigned to either the SEL‐enhanced GFLA (SEL‐GFLA) group or the GFLA group. The SEL‐GFLA group experienced SEL practices such as meditation breathing, compliment before feedback and optimistic closure. Results and Conclusions The findings, analysed using independent t ‐tests, ANCOVA and thematic analysis, revealed that integrating SEL practices into the gamified flipped classroom approach positively influenced students' emotion regulation, learning achievement, communication tendency, learning competence support and emotional appraisal support. These results have implications for educators and policy makers, highlighting the benefits of incorporating SEL practices into instructional approaches to enhance students' socio‐emotional and academic outcomes.