Quinn and Iverson argued that students “needto be engaged more and to be put at the centre of the learning experience to changefrom ‘passive vessel’ to ‘active participant'” (as cited in Pannesse &Carlesi, 2007).
Delacruz (2011) evaluated games as tools tosupport formative assessment and examined how varying the level of detail abouta game’s scoring rules affected learning and performance in mathematics. Herresearch found that combining elaborated scoring explanation with incentivesfor accessing game feedback resulted in higher learning gains.According to Gee (2007), high quality immersivegames require players to think systemically and consider relationships insteadof isolated events or facts. The abundance of options and possible decisionpoints within games forces players to not only apply their knowledge but toadapt their knowledge to varying situations. They must think abstractly becausethey are playing abstractly. This helps to develop their skills indecision-making, innovation, and problem-solving (Johnson et al., 2011).
The 2011 Horizon report suggests thataugmented reality and game-based learning will gain widespread use in two tothree years (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood, 2011).The Education Arcade examined case studiesand analyses of the games I Love Bees and Civilization, which demonstrate the higher-ordercognitive skills of collaboration and collective intelligence, as well asanalysis and complex argument (Klopfer et al, 2009).A recentlarge-scale review of educational gaming in schools surveyed over 500 teachersacross Europe and has reinforced these findings, citing that beyond increasedmotivation, teachers using games in the classroom have also noted improvementin several key skills areas (Joyce, Gerhard & Debry, 2009, p. 85):Although a largenumber of researchers are convinced about the effectiveness of serious gamesand gamification for educational purposes, there is a lack of high quality empirical evidence that they improve learning outcomes (De Freitas Jarvis, 2007). A number of meta-analyses have been conducted for empirically evaluating the use of serious games and gamification to increase the effectiveness of training and learning and there are still no firmconclusions (Connolly et al.
, 2012; Girard et al., 2012; Ke, 2009; Sitzmann, 2011). More rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of gamification to improve learning is needed as well as improving ourunderstanding of the nature of engagement in games (Connolly et al., 2012).Marzano (2007) hasbeen involved in over 60 studies on using games in the classroom and theireffect on student accomplishment which showed a 20 percentile increase in theirachievement. Several studies have concluded that games had positive effects onproblem solving, achievement, and interest and engagement in task learning(Kim, Park, & Baek, 2009; Tuzun et al.
, 2008; Wideman, Owston, Brown,Kushnirk, Pitts, et al. 2007; Oyen and Bebko, 1996; Robertson & Howell,2008). This study proposed that teacher-made instructional card games have apositive effect on the learning of chemistry concepts.
The findings of thecontent analysis process revealed factors influencing the academic performancein Biology (Tom, Coetzee and Heyns, 2014). They therefore concluded that the main factor identified were biological science contents, characteristics of educators, educational strategies, resources and biological scienceassessment.Snezana et al.(2011) outlined in his study that academic achievement in lessons began with experiment or slide demonstration was higher than lessons beginning with lecture method.