Gaming and Gamification in Physical and Health Education: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

The use of gaming in education is becoming a popular topic among educators and educational institutions. Educational technology is being harnessed to develop games to simplify and improve learning but this will not be effective unless the technology tool is in line with the curriculum. Gamification is seen as a tool for increasing students' motivation and engagement and developing team spirit, and collaboration abilities to achieve learning objectives. This paper therefore highlights the prospects and challenges of adopting gamification in teaching Physical and Health Education. The factors militating against the adoption of gamification by Physical and Health Education teachers as identified by this paper were; curriculum factors, teacher-related factors, institutional factors and technical factors. The prospects highlighted were that gamification encourages students’ participation and fosters team spirit and collaboration, improves students’ retention and critical thinking ability, makes learning fun and easy, improves students’ self-confidence and helps students with attention problems to stay focused in class. The paper recommended that curriculum planners should not take eyes away from the overwhelming prospects of gaming and gamification hence it should be incorporated in the curriculum of Physical and Health Education in secondary schools. Also, more empirical studies that will evaluate the effect of educational games on students' performance in physical and health education should be conducted