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Although many studies in recent years have examined the use of gamification as a motivational strategy in education, evidence regarding its effects on intrinsic motivation is inconsistent. To make the case for or against the adoption of gamification in education, this study examines its effects on students’ intrinsic motivation and the underlying motivational factors: perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In this review, we analyzed the results of studies comparing gamified learning with non-gamified learning published between 2011 and 2022. The results of our meta-analysis of 35 independent interventions (involving 2500 participants) indicated an overall significant but small effect size favoring gamified learning over learning without gamification (Hedges’ g = 0.257, 95% CI [0.043, 0.471], p = .019) with no evidence of publication bias. Gamification also exerted a positive and significant effect on the students’ perceptions of autonomy (Hedges’ g = 0.638, 95% CI [0.139, 1.136], p = .012) and relatedness (Hedges’ g = 1.776, 95% CI [0.737, 2.814], p = .001), but minimal impact on competence (Hedges’ g = 0.277, 95% CI [0.001, 0.553], p = .049). To further investigate the possible reasons for the small impact on intrinsic motivation, a systematic review of 31 studies was conducted. The findings revealed two major challenges encountered in the adoption of gamification to increase students’ intrinsic motivation: students’ lack of perceived competence and lack of perceived autonomy in gamified classes.

Educational Badges are touted as an alternative assessment that can increase learner motivation. We considered two distinct models for educational badges; merit badges and videogame achievements. To begin unpacking the relationship between badges and motivation, we conducted a study using badges within an intelligent-tutor system for teaching applied mathematics to middle-school students. Our findings indicate that badge earning could be driven by learner motivations and that systems with badges could have a positive effect on critical learner motivations. However, badge acquisition patterns were different across learners with different levels of prior knowledge. Different badge types also affected different learners motivation. Additionally, we believe that our findings are compatible with the research finding that extrinsic motivators have a negative influence on learning. The implication for educational badge designers is that they must consider the ability and motivations of learners when choosing what badges to include in their curricula. We believe our findings exist as one piece of the large research base needed to understand educational badges.

Students’ adaptive motivation to study tends to decrease over time. However, the reasons for this decline are not fully understood. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), we investigated whether changes in teachers’ motivating style and students’ associated need-based experiences could explain the motivational decline documented in the literature. A total of 472 Israeli seventh and eighth graders (in their first and second years of middle school) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of the school year. Students reported their perceptions of their teachers’ (de)motivating styles (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos), the extent to which their psychological needs were satisfied or frustrated, and their motivation to study. There was a significant decrease from the beginning to the end of the school year in 7 th - and 8th-grade students’ perceptions of autonomy support and structure provided by their teachers, students' autonomous motivation, and their experienced need satisfaction. There was a significant increase from the beginning to the end of the school year in 7th and 8th graders’ perception of their teacher as chaotic and the students’ experience of need frustration, controlled motivation, and amotivation. A growth curve multilevel model (GCMLM) indicated that the perceived changes in teachers’ motivating and demotivating styles, together with the changes in the students' reported need-based experiences from the beginning to the end of the year, could account for these changes in students’ motivation. Teachers should develop and maintain a need-nurturing environment to prevent a drop in student motivation.

Purpose>This study aims to explore whether online learning has an effect on communication between instructors and students in a negative way, whether online learning affects students' productivity levels and to evaluate and suggest ways of improving effective online communication between instructors and students.Design/methodology/approach>This study used is a quantitative research study which was conducted through a semi-structured online survey through a random sample technique.Findings>Results revealed that the vast majority agree with the questions of the study. Students still prefer classroom classes over online classes due to many problems they face when taking online classes, such as lack of motivation, understanding of the material, decrease in communication levels between the students and their instructors and their feeling of isolation caused by online classes.Research limitations/implications>This research studied the impact from students' perspective only as the sample was selected only from students.Originality/value>This research reached the students’ point of view in a broader way which will help understanding the issues and provide effective solutions. This research suggested that instructors must communicate with their students and vice versa in more informal channels (instant messages online chat groups, audio calls, private video calls …) in parallel with the formal channels (online platforms, email …). Finally, instructors should encourage students to participate and study more by providing different kind of incentives.

College students (N = 215) completed a self-report instrument designed to assess different regulation of motivation strategies as well as aspects of their motivational beliefs, use of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, and procrastination. The study serves to extend the research on the self-regulation of motivation through three related findings. One, results indicate that the instrument evaluated in the study provides a reliable and valid method for assessing six motivational regulation strategies in a college population. Two, analyses revealed differences in the extent that students reported using the regulation of motivation strategies, while also showing them to be related to other aspects of self-regulated learning in a theoretically consistent way. Last, findings from a series of multiple regressions indicate that students' engagement in motivational regulation is a function of their existing motivational beliefs and attitudes.

Can a subtle linguistic cue that invokes the self motivate children to help? In two experiments, 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 149) were exposed to the idea of \"being a helper\" (noun condition) or \"helping\" (verb condition). Noun wording fosters the perception that a behavior reflects an identity—the kind of person one is. Both when children interacted with an adult who referenced \"being a helper\" or \"helping\" (Experiment 1) and with a new adult (Experiment 2), children in the noun condition helped significantly more across four tasks than children in the verb condition or a baseline control condition. The results demonstrate that children are motivated to pursue a positive identity. Moreover, this motivation can be leveraged to encourage prosocial behavior.

In this research, a GAmified Mobile Leaning Framework (GAMOLEAF) developed as a new intelligent application designed for mobile devices to ensure learning, assessing, and advancing learners’ knowledge in programming complex data structures in Java programming language. GAMOLEAF adopted motivational strategies to solve motivational problems during the COVID-19 pandemic by employing a gamification module, that integrates levels, scores, badges, leaderboard, and feedback. Furthermore, in order to assist learners to find useful and relevant lessons and best solutions for each data structure, GAMOLEAF incorporated personalized recommendations through two intelligent modules: a Lessons Recommendation Module (LRecM) and a problem-solving Solutions Recommender Module (PSSORecM). LrecM aims to provide learners with personalized lessons depending on the ratings collected explicitly from them. Whereas, PSSORecM bases on learners’ behaviors and directs them to consult other solutions. Both modules were based on the collaborative filtering method and used Matrix Factorization (MF) applying Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithms, respectively. To explore how the integration of personalized recommendations and gamification impact on students motivation and learning achievements in higher education to learning programming complex data structures course using mobile technologies, especially in difficult times like COVID-19, an experiment was carried out to compare the learning achievement and motivation of 90 students divided into three groups (control group, first experimental group, and second experimental group) using three versions of GAMOLEAF respectively: GAMOLEAF-V1 without gamification and without recommendation, GAMOLEAF-V2 integrating gamification only and GAMOLEAF-V3 integrating both gamification and recommendation. The One-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) test and Post hoc Tukey test were employed to analyze the performances of the three groups before and after the learning activity. The results suggested that the students who learned with GAMOLEAF-V3 using gamification and recommendation achieved significantly better learning achievement than those who learned with GAMOLEAF-V2 and GAMOLEAF-V1. From the experimental results, it was found that the gamification applied in GAMOLEAF-V2 and GAMOLEAF-V3 had significantly better effectiveness in improving only students’ motivation without improving their learning achievement. Moreover, the analysis result of the learning achievement indicated that the students in the second experimental group showed significantly higher learning achievement using GAMOLEAF-V3 in comparison with those in both the control group and the first experimental group who used GAMOLEAF-V1 and GAMOLEAF-V2 respectively. Such findings indicate that the personalized recommendations offered by the Lessons Recommendation Module (LRecM) and the problem-solving Solutions Recommender Module (PSSORecM) in GAMOLEAF-V3 may be one of the reasons why the learning achievement of students was increased.

Strength training (ST) or resistance training is important in the development and maintenance of musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health in women of all ages; however, uptake of ST amongst women is low. To improve female musculoskeletal health, it is vital that more women are encouraged to participate in ST to maintain musculoskeletal integrity. This systematic review aimed to identify motivators and barriers to women initiating and maintaining ST. Following protocol registration and systematic search, studies were included if they were primary qualitative or mixed-method studies reporting participant verbatim quotes, included adult women, and focused on motivators and barriers for ST. Searches generated 2534 articles from 3 databases, with 20 studies (N = 402 participants) meeting eligibility criteria. Participant quotes and authors’ interpretations were analysed using thematic synthesis. The most frequently observed barriers were gender-based stigmas, discouragement, and negative comments, particularly in women currently engaging in ST. Other factors associated with poor adherence included boredom, poor knowledge of ST, poor gym accessibility, lack of supervision or routine, and difficulty in balancing work and family life. Social support from friends and family, words of affirmation, and accompaniment facilitated ST, particularly in older women. Women who saw expected results such as weight loss were motivated to continue ST. Interventions aimed at increasing participation in ST amongst women should focus on the specific benefits valued by women and the dissemination of accurate information to counter misconceptions and increase knowledge. The adaptation of gym environments to make them more welcoming to women, and reduce gender-focused criticism, is especially important.

The complexity of modern societies necessitates that children learn highly abstract material, such as mathematics, which often conflicts with behavioral goals that are innately motivating. For instance, children’s educational success is generally evaluated based on their individual achievements, while humans are motivated to learn by engaging in socially relevant behaviors. Additionally, science-related content typically requires higher-level abstract thinking to comprehend related concepts and perform the underlying cognitive processes, whereas humans evolved primarily to monitor and manipulate the physical environment by moving within it to execute foraging and hunting behaviors. Moreover, school systems inherently prescribe top-down strategies in which teachers transfer knowledge by providing instructions to guide students' knowledge acquisition. By contrast, humans evolved to learn through bottom-up processes motivated by the learner's internal drive to explore their physical and social environment. As a consequence, skeletal cognitive competencies that evolved throughout human history create a mismatch between why children are motivated to learn and how they are expected to learn. This review adopts an evolutionary perspective to examine how the interplay between students’ internal physiological and psychological adaptations and external instructional methods of modern educational systems impacts motivation and learning. Ultimately, the review offers suggestions on how to motivate the learning process by integrating self-determination theory principles into a dynamical systems framework.

The imagination is powerful, in part, because of the emotions that can be activated by imagining future states. Imagined future states are a key feature of the L2 self-system proposed by Dƅrnyei, and emotion may be the key to the motivational quality of the imagined future self. In particular, this paper focuses on positive anticipated and anticipatory emotions related to language learning. It is argued that, in general, positive emotion has a different function from negative emotion; they are not opposite ends of the same spectrum. Based on the work of Fredrickson, we argue that positive emotion facilitates the building of resources because positive emotion tends to broaden a person’s perspective, opening the individual to absorb the language. In contrast, negative emotion produces the opposite tendency, a narrowing of focus and a restriction of the range of potential language input. This article draws a framework for finding a balance between the positivebroadening and negative-narrowing emotions in the language classroom, and beyond. The emotion system is an engine for the positive-broadening power of the imagination.