The Effect of In-Class Educational Group Games (EGGs) on Student Motivation and Academic Achievement for Pharmaceutical Science Students

Abstract

An in-class Educational Group Game (EGG) is defined as a face-to-face educational game which aims to motivate students to learn through interaction and collaboration with peers. Many teachers have used EGG to facilitate their teaching. However, most research conducted on EGG activities thus far were either derived from case studies or only focused on students’ perceptions of EGGs. In addition, the literature indicates that not many of such studies were conducted in tertiary institutions.

To address these research gaps, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of in-class EGGs on students’ learning motivation and academic achievement by applying a quasi-experiment method in a tertiary setting. The participants were Year 1 (n=88) and Year 2 (n=54) students of Nanyang Polytechnic taking the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The results for Year 1 and Year 2 students in this study were analysed separately as different EGGs were administered with different learning objectives and different game mechanics. A mixed ANOVA was conducted to examine the mean differences between pre- and post-tests conducted among the control as well as experimental groups A and B of Year 1 and Year 2 students. A paired sample t-test was conducted on data collected from the questionnaire to compare the difference between the levels of motivation of students towards the EGG and the worksheet. Students in both years demonstrated a significant increase of interest (intrinsic motivation) and perceived choice towards the EGG compared to the worksheet. Interestingly, a decrease in both direct and indirect performance-related extrinsic motivation were also observed in both years. In conclusion, the EGG provides an affective learning environment for students to learn by eliciting their intrinsic motivation.