Gamification in secondary school physics: An exploratory quasi‑experimental study of conceptual understanding in energy and momentum

Abstract

Energy and momentum are fundamental concepts in secondary-school physics, yet students often continue to experience conceptual difficulties even after formal instruction. This study explored differences in students’ conceptual understanding between gamified and non-gamified instructional conditions. A classroom-based quasi-experimental pre-/post-test design was implemented with 63 students aged 15-16 from three intact first-year gymnasium classes in Croatia. One class received gamified instruction, while two classes received the same curricular content, learning activities, instructional time, teacher guidance, and feedback without the game-design elements. Students’ conceptual understanding was assessed using a Croatian translation of the energy and momentum conceptual survey (EMCS) administered before and after the eight-week instructional unit. Student-level analyses showed a larger mean raw gain in the gamified condition than in the non-gamified condition. A baseline-adjusted analysis using HC3 heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors showed the same general pattern. The gamified condition also demonstrated a higher class-average normalized gain, although both conditions remained within Hake’s (1998) low-gain range. Several EMCS items remained challenging after instruction in both conditions. Because only one intact class received the gamified intervention, instructional condition could not be separated fully from class membership. The findings should therefore be interpreted as context-specific and exploratory rather than as definitive evidence of a causal effect of gamification.