Teachers’ beliefs about gamification and competencies development: A concept mapping approach

ABSTRACT

Despite an increasing academic attention towards both gamification and competencies-based education, little is known about Higher Education teachers’ beliefs regarding the use of gamification to develop students’ competencies. To fill this research gap, concept mapping was used to cluster teachers’ beliefs in 4 dimensions regarding the use of gamification to develop students’ competencies. Our findings suggest that teachers believe that gamification encourages team working and oral communication skills. Moreover, critical thinking and social skills development were also found as some of the benefits that teachers believe the use of gamification can provide to the development of students’ competencies. These findings should encourage both Higher Education teachers and policy makers to increase the use of gamification-based programmes to develop students’ competencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Gamification
• competencies
• Higher Education
• teachers’ beliefs
• concept mapping

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Laureate International Universities through the David A. Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning under Grant LIU-WIL2015.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Laureate International Universities [LIU-WIL2015].

Notes on contributors

José Martí-Parreño

José Martí-Parreño is Vice Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer at Universidad Internacional de Valencia (Spain). His research has been published in top refereed journals such as Computers in Human Behavior and Journal of Computer Assisted Learning

Amparo Galbis-Córdova

Amparo Galbis-Córdova is Rector at the Universidad Europea de Valencia (Spain). She got his PhD from Universidad Europea de Madrid. Her main research areas of interest are gamification and competencies development. Her research has been published in top refereed journals including Computers in Human Behavior.

Rafael Currás-Pérez

Rafael Currás-Pérez is Associate Professor at the Universitat de València (Spain). He got his PhD from the Universitat de València. His main research areas of interest are research methodologies, marketing, and educational innovation. His research has been published in top refereed journals such as Journal of Business Ethics and European Journal of Marketing among other.