PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND OPINION ABOUT GAMIFICATION

Gamification of learning is a relatively new approach in education, whose use is becoming more and more widespread. It is used mainly in higher education and it mostly implemented using web-based educational portals. Gamification is not frequently used in primary schools yet. This fact underline the importance of studying primary school teachers’ knowledge and opinion about gamification. Another aspect to be taken in consideration is that gamification can be confused with game-based learning by primary school teachers. Thus teachers’ answers should be carefully analyzed to be sure that they express their opinion about gamification, and not about use of games in education.A complex questionnaire related with game-based learning and gamification was developed with four sections. For this paper the section related with the knowledge and opinion about gamification was chosen to be studied. In this research 24 questions are analyzed, from which 10 are demographical and 14 are related with the research topic. 21 items are formulated as closed questions of different type: multiple choice, checkbox, and scale. Respondents are 196 primary school teachers with an average age of 42,18 years, almost all of them female. High percentage of the participants have university level studies and the average teaching experience is 20,82.The results show that only one third of the respondents heard about gamification before filling in the questionnaire. The questionnaire contains a short description of gamification to be sure that all the respondents answer the questions related with gamification knowing what this approach means. Even in this situation almost one third of the respondents think that the use of a board-game or card-game is gamification. More than half of the respondents think that the tasks given at a lesson can be gamified the easiest way, thus gamification is more appropriate for exercising knowledge and competencies. As regarding advantages, in the view of the participant teachers gamification makes the teaching/learning process varied, ensures active participation, contributes to the personality development of the pupils, and helps motivating pupils. Most of the respondents consider gamification appropriate for use in primary school and they would implement it in a paper-pencil form.