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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.12

Publication Date: December 25, 2020

DOI:10.14738/assrj.712.9585.

Riaz, A., & Awais, M. T. (2020). Teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): A Conceptual Framework.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(12) 641-657

Teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

(STEM): A Conceptual Framework

Anum Riaz

Beijing Normal University, China

Muhammad Taimoor Awais

Beijing Normal University, China

ABSTRACT

Conceptual mapping was to study the term gamification in science,

technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. In total, 287

texts were obtained, of which 39 documents were selected for review.

The axes of analysis were: notion, categorization, characterization,

differentiation, division, linkage, methodology and exemplification. The

result consisted of a systematization of the gamification concept and its

methodological aspects for teaching STEM. The main findings will

differentiation between gamification, serious educational games, and

game-based learning. This will allow planning. The purpose of this

documentary research, carried out with the method of Conceptual

Cartography, was to make a conceptual study of the term “gamification”,

specifically in the learning of science, technology, engineering and

mathematics (STEM). A total of 287 texts were obtained and finally 39

documents were selected for revision. Eight axes of analysis were

applied: notion, categorization, characterization, differentiation,

division, linkage, methodology and exemplification. The result was a

systematization of the concept “gamification” and its methodological

aspects for the teaching of STEM. The main finding was a differentiation

between “gamification”, “educative serious games” and “game-based

learning”. This would allow planning differentiated educational

strategies according to specific teaching objectives.

Keywords : gamification, conceptual cartography, educative serious games,

gamebased learning

INTRODUCTION

The economic growth of a society depends, to a large extent, on the development of new

technologies that allow facing the challenges posed by a complex and changing global economic

environment. This makes the need to improve science and technology education in Mexico urgent.

The United States Commission for Homeland Security in the 21st century stated that science,

technology, and education need to be properly managed for the common good in the future (Lathrop

& Mackenzie, 2001).

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 12, December-2020

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM) is an educational proposal

whose objective is to promote the skills of students in these four disciplines, so that they are related

to each other to provide a better educational experience for the students (Bybee, 2010). This is

important because the number of jobs related to STMCs grew threefold compared to other areas

between 2000 and 2010, and because a huge number of jobs in this job could not be filled due to

lack of personnel. trained (Smithsonian Science Education Center, 2019).

On the other hand, games have great potential to motivate individuals (Sailer, Hensen, Mayr &

Mandl, 2017). The constructivist theory establishes that learning can only occur when the student

joyfully conceptualizes new experiences. Therefore, the game has been considered as a fundamental

element for people to achieve meaningful learning. This potential can be applied to education

through the concepts associated with “gamification”, understood as the use of game elements in

non-recreational contexts (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled & Nacke, 2011). Gamification, taken as an

educational strategy, was first documented in 2010 and has gained relevance since then (Llorens et

al., 2016). It is, from this perspective, an excellent tool to facilitate learning.

This approach has caught the attention of educators in recent years because it offers the possibility

of making learning more attractive to learners (Seixas, Gomes & Melo, 2016), which has led to a

notable increase in interest in this field. study. Lack of motivation in class is one of the challenges

that teaching staff face (Lee & Hammer, 2011). Considering that the main objective of gamification

is to improve the participation of students in class (Villagrasa, Fonseca, Redondo & Durán, 2014), it

is natural to find that this strategy has been frequently applied in educational contexts (De Marcos,

García-Cabot & García, 2017).

In accordance with the above, our study focuses on a conceptual analysis of gamification in the

teaching of STEM, in which we use eight categories.

RESEARCH METHOD

The study was carried out using conceptual cartography, which is an eminently qualitative

documentary analysis method to systematize the results that the specialized scientific literature has

previously carried out on a subject in question. The general procedure is to select, analyze and

systematize published documents on the subject to answer research questions on it (Bermeo,

Hernández and Tobón, 2016). Analysis technique As a strategy for documentary analysis, we use

eight axes of analysis: notion, categorization, characterization, differentiation, division, linkage,

methodology and exemplification (Tobón, 2012). Conceptual mapping uses guiding questions that

show the elements that must be addressed in each of the central axes and that serve as a guide for

the search in the analysis and organization of the knowledge acquired around the concept studied

(see Table 1).

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Riaz, A., & Awais, M. T. (2020). Teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): A Conceptual Framework. Advances in Social

Sciences Research Journal, 7(12) 641-657.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.712.9585 643

Table 1: Key axes of conceptual mapping

Analysis axis Central question Components

Notion What is the etymology of the concept

of gamification in the teaching of

STEM, its historical development

and its current definition?

Etymology of the terms

Historical development of the

concept

Current definition

Categorization To which major class does the

concept of gamification belong?

Immediate class: definition and

characteristics

Following class: definition and

characteristics

Characterization What are the central characteristics of

the concept of gamification?

Key characteristics of the concept

taking into account the notion and

categorization

Explanation of each characteristic

Differentiation What other similar concepts does the

concept of gamification differ from?

Description of the similar concepts of

which the central concept tends to be

confused

Definition of each concept

Specific differences with the central

concept

Classification In which subclasses or types is the

concept of gamification classified?

Defining criteria for establishing

subclasses

Description of each subclass

Bonding How is gamification linked to certain

theories, social-cultural processes

and epistemological referents outside

the category?

Description of one or several

approaches or theories that contribute

to the understanding, construction

and application of the concept.

Explanation of the contributions of

these approaches

The approaches or theories have to be

different from what is exposed in the

categorization

Methodology What are the minimum

methodological elements involved in

the gamification approach?

Steps or general elements to apply the

concept

Exemplification What could be a relevant and

pertinent example of application of

the concept of gamification in the

teaching of STEM?

Concrete example that illustrates the

application of the concept and

addresses the steps of the

methodology

Example must contain context details

CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF DOCUMENTS

During this stage, we select both the keywords and the databases to consult. For the work, we chose

the scientific literature databases ScienceDirect and Web of Science. The search terms applied were

"gamification" or "serious games" or "game-based learning" and "STEM".

Each document had to meet the following criteria to be selected:

▪Include keywords according to the specified Boolean expression.

▪ Focus on gamification in the teaching-learning process of STEM.

▪Have author, year and person in charge of the edition (publisher, research center, university or

magazine).

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 12, December-2020

▪ Be written in the English language.

▪Be articles published in peer-reviewed journals during the 2014-2018 period.

Study phases

The documentary research was carried out following the following phases:

▪ Phase 1: search of the relevant primary sources in the selected databases. We obtained 253

records from ScienceDirect and 34 from Web of Science. In total there were 287 texts.

▪ Phase 2: selection of documents that met the established criteria. After reading the abstracts, we

ruled out 248 articles that did not meet the criteria, and 39 were left for review. The totality of the

chosen works had as their main objective the teaching of STMCs through the application or proposal

of educational strategies focused on the use of games and mechanics associated with them.

▪ Phase 3: elaboration of the conceptual cartography based on its eight axes.

CONCEPTUAL MAPPING

Notion

The idea of using the game as an educational factor is not new; For example, the philosopher Locke

(1986) considers that play teaches how to measure your own strength, to dominate yourself, to act

with profit on the external world and to promote future intellectual teachings. Learning through

play receives an important boost in training proposals that make use of the internet, since there are

a multitude of opportunities to focus on achieving competencies through tasks focused on widely

accessible digital games.

The use of video games as auxiliaries in education is a subset of a more general idea, known as

gamification, whose term is the translation of Anglicism gamification coined since 2002 (Burke,

2014), and whose etymology is derived from the English word game (game in Spanish).

Gamification has been a prevailing trend in education since 2010 (Deterding et al., 2011) and

consists of the application of game strategies and mechanics in contexts that are not for leisure or

entertainment with the purpose of promoting a specific behavior (Marín and Hierro, 2013).

This approach has been widely documented (Kapp, 2012) and reports several benefits, among

which the reinforcement of reading ability, discovery learning and creativity, as well as an increase

in motivation to learn, stand out. To this we must add that the integration of virtual environments

to game-based learning models results in dynamic and attractive contexts (Berns, Palomo-Duarte,

Dodero & Valero, 2013), which offers great potential to facilitate interaction between actors in the

learning process. However, skeptical opinions are also presented regarding the benefits that

gamification promises (Bogost, 2011), which is to be expected, since this study area is on a frontier

of knowledge.

Furthermore, there is a deep interest in preparing youth in issues related to STM, and promoting

the training of professionals of excellence in these areas (The EU Framework for Research and

Innovation, 2011). For this research, in its broadest definition, STMs encompass the fields of

chemistry, computer science, engineering, earth science, mathematics, physics, astronomy, health

science, and life science (they include the disciplines of biology, ecology and sustainable

development in relation to its conservation of the environment).

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Riaz, A., & Awais, M. T. (2020). Teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): A Conceptual Framework. Advances in Social

Sciences Research Journal, 7(12) 641-657.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.712.9585 645

Categorization

The main goal of gamification is to raise the level of user involvement when performing specific

tasks (Flatla, Gutwin, Nacke, Bateman & Mandryk, 2011). Within the framework of teaching STEM,

gamification has been used as a didactic strategy in the teaching-learning process of engineering

(Area and González, 2015; Villegas & Alvarado, 2017). A didactic strategy is a systematic procedure

to plan the teacher's actions, in order for the student to achieve learning consistent with the

established educational objectives. This planning of the teaching-learning process involves a set of

decisions that the facilitator makes in a conscious and reflective way about the techniques to be

used to achieve the learning goals. For these reasons, the conceptual mapping proposed in our work

considers that the immediate conceptual class prior to which gamification belongs is the category

of didactic strategy.

Didactic strategies have several aspects in common, among which it is highlighted that they can

include various techniques or learning activities that pursue a specific objective, always with the

aim of achieving the academic goals linked to those activities. The particular case of gamification

makes use of game mechanics to promote learning motivation.

A didactic strategy must be understood as a sociocultural instrument in the context of the

interaction of the actors of the teaching-learning process with their environment (Díaz-Barriga and

Hernández, 2002). This strategy can affect the way in which new knowledge is acquired and

integrated, including the modification of the affective state of the student, as long as this favors the

conditions to improve the learning of the contents and the proposed skills.

The didactic strategies cover all the cognitive resources that the student uses when he faces learning

(Valle, González-Cabanach, Cuevas-González and Fernández-Suárez, 1998). In the particular case of

gamification, elements related to student motivation and activities of planning, directing and

controlling learning are considered. Gamification has been successfully used as a didactic strategy

in the teaching of STEM, both in isolation and in combination with other strategies (Revelo, Collazos,

and Jiménez-Toledo, 2018).

Characterization

Gamification is characterized by being a technique that uses game mechanics in non-recreational

environments with the aim of improving users' commitment to a product or service. Game

mechanics are constructs made up of rules and feedback loops, the goal of which is to provide

participants with a pleasant experience by using their intrinsic motivations.

The successful application of game mechanics depends on a well-designed gamification didactic

strategy, built on the basis of an adequate understanding of the participant, his mission and the

motivation that drives him. Table 2 compiles the game mechanics most commonly associated with

gamification with the understanding that they can be applied individually or in combination.