Systematic Review: The impact of game-based learning on children aged 4 to 7 years old
Nur Hafizah Binti A Raman1, Siti Zailehah Binti Che Umar2 a
1School of Multimedia Technology & Communication, University Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah,
2 School of Multimedia Technology & Communication, University Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah,
Email: n__hafizah@smmtc.uum.edu.my
Email: s_zailehah_che@smmtc.uum.edu.my
Received 7 July 2020
Accepted for publication 7 July 2020
Published 7 July 2020
Abstract
Children aged 4 to 7 years old tend to play more than learning because the development is increasing in this age. Besides, storytelling, creative play and other games are suitable for kids’ development. The problem children face when they come to learning only without any interactive method is that they become tedious, sleepy, and have difficulties understanding. Game-based learning is one game that accessible nowadays in the education sector. In this paper, we want to identify the impact of game-based learning for children aged 4 to 7 years old. The findings will review the effect of game-based learning among preschoolers, whether bringing a positive effect or a negative effect on children. The method to find the article is by using the systematic Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). ACM, Taylor & Francis and Scopus are three digital databases is used to find the article for systematic review and meta-analyses. The article is from the year 2015 to 2020. The term or keywords used to search the article are children, game learning, a student from 7 to 12 years old. From the research below, there are 40 articles found that related to the title of review. However, 12 articles only are chosen to do a systematic review. From this analysis, we can conclude that game-based learning can bring a positive effect on children.
Keywords: Game-Based Learning, Children, 4 to 7 years old.
- Introduction
Learning without a break can be tedious and hard for children, mainly aged 4 to 7 years old. Playing games is the one activity that most children loved. The studies show when children from earlier four years old play some games or activities, they learn something new (Jones et al. 1999). However, nowadays, there are games based learning in the marketplace. Some of them have also applied in schools, such as game-based learning in science (Sung et al. 2013), mathematics, and something related to general intelligence (Akcaoglu M, 2014). Previous research found that game-based learning can improve knowledge and one of the mechanisms to attract children in learning (Marc P, 2001).
Game-based learning is prevalent in education as other options to lead for understanding or expanding children’s learning process—game-based learning known as the gameplay related to what the student learns in the class. Besides, collaboration from students and teachers are needed to take part in game-based learning. Learn in class is very hard for someone who slows to catch up with what the teacher teaching in the class. By applying game-based learning as another mechanism of learning process could be increasing their conception of education.
As a developer, there is step by step that needs to follow up, starting from the analysis of actual game-based learning, then go to the design phase and lastly, the product used by the user. There is one criterion that needs to be pointed out to attract children to play game-based learning, which is the design of game-based learning. Previous studies have been a review that the designing team need to give more attention to the gameplay and to learn to catch the eye of the targeted user (Klopher et al. 2009). Colourful and cute designs are the one factor to attract users to play that we know children like something that bright and aesthetics.
In this paper, we aim to describe the impact of game-based learning instead of learning in the class for children aged 4 to 7 years old. The result and discussion of this paper are by the literature review of 12 articles about the impact of game-based learning—this paper uses a matrix review to identify the article related to the research question.
2.0 Objectives
The widespread use of gadgets in each community is no exception to children as young as four years old and above. Children today are more likely to play games and less interested in traditional learning. The review article’s goal is to examine the growth of children’s use of gadgets for digital learning purposes. The aim paper is to measure the children’s impact on game-based learning effects. One of the strategies used to get children interested in learning to play is the method of playing a game. The following article reviews can clarify whether game-based learning has a positive or negative impact on children.
3.0 Study selection
This part explains the review of the literature on game-based learning for children. In summary, those papers not cited by and not citing other papers in the network will be excluded as the relation is relatively low.
3.1 Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria, together with exclusion criteria, constitute the selection or eligibility criteria used to determine the target population for a study. Criteria for inclusion are a collection of predefined characteristics used to classify subjects to be included in a research sample. Inclusion criteria should respond to and are critical to achieving the study’s external and internal validity, boost its feasibility, reduce its costs and mitigate ethical concerns specifically good selection criteria would ensure sample population homogeneity reduce confounding and increase the probability of discovering an accurate correlation between exposure or intervention and outcomes. Table 1 defines the condition for inclusion and exclusion, as shown below.
| Inclusion | Exclusion |
| · Concerned with studying examining games and learning for 4-7-year-olds
· Studies which define the article in English · Studies describing reported outcomes are data collection method, result and related article information for learning and gambling |
· Studies defining game for adolescent aged 12 and above
· Studies describe peer review as expect the report · Studies have highlighted information that is not relevant to the article. |
3.2 Method
The research method was a systematically carried out review of the literature.
3.2.1 Specifying research question
The system used to conduct searches for the database is divided into two primary and secondary searches that use a synonym in the article for main words using the PICO framework. PICO framework included the population, intervention, comparison and outcome. The main topic and word from a few question which can be checked as well for. The keyword is used to do article related searches to make finding specific information more accessible. Result for research query obtained via the search word. RQ1: is that learning for children performed on a game for aged 4-7 years old more effective than learning using a book over a four-week consultation process to gain their knowledge.
| Primary search terms | Synonyms | |
| P | Children | Kids, very young person |
| I | Learning | Knowledge, education, study, information |
| C | Virtual | Essential |
| O | Gain | Obtain, get, acquire |
| T | Consultation | Discussion, dialogue |
3.2.2 Extracting search term
The search for the studies was carried out in 2014. search-based offers the option to restrict the research to publications related to game-based learning to avoid a result of a list of work without interest in this study. Below were the search process used:
( game AND for AND aged 4-7 years AND old AND learning AND for AND children ) AND PUBYEAR > 2014
[All: game for aged 4-7 years old and learning for children] OR [All: 2015-2020]
[All: game for aged 4-7 years old and learning for children] AND [Publication Date: (01/01/2015 TO 31/12/2020)
3.3.3. Databases search strategies
After the initial search in the database, a screening of the returned studies was performed manually to find the main Word from the online database included ACM Digital Library, Taylor & Francis, Scopus, Scholar and Research gate.
4.0 Result
Table 1 shows the search results in 4 database articles such as ACM, Taylor and Francis, Scopus and Research Gate. From 4 databases, there is 40 article that we found related to the studies. After removing the duplicate article, 36 articles need to be filtered again. From these, 14 were eligibility to selected after reading the article and finally, 12 articles met with the objectives articles.
| Description | ACM | Scopus | Taylor and Francis | Research gate.net | Total |
| Article found in the database | 15 | 2 | 20 | 3 | 40 |
| Remaining after duplicate remove | 15 | 1 | 17 | 3 | 36 |
| 1st filter: Screening | 1 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 15 |
| Remaining article after 1st filter | 14 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 21 |
| 2nd filter: Eligibility | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| Remaining article after 2nd filter | 12 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| Included: Qualitative synthesis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Included: Quantitative synthesis | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
Table 1: PRISMA
4.1 Type of game
Based on table 2, there is a type of game that related to game-based learning. In (Gouin-Vallerand et al., 2018) conducted a severe game to preschoolers at kindergarten in Montreal, Canada. This game needs children to match the fruit with the digit provided. Other articles from García-Ruiz & Santana-Mancilla, 2019 also do a severe game, an InTense app, to help children’s speech and introduce the English language to them.
(Paul et al., 2015) present a prototype of an interactive game that is Word out! To give some acknowledgement to children about the English language. Five hundred players played this game located in the Art Science Museum, and few of them excited to play again. (Rocha et al., 2019) create a prototype in an interactive game for children to test their learning process and development.
Previous studies have mentioned that the collaborative game could develop new knowledge for children from an early age (Fails, J.A., 2007). Titibots collab is the collaborative programming game that tests for children aged 4 to 6 years old. To play this game, the user needs to drag to drop to make a robot. Curio game is produced by (Maureira, 2018) to look for curiosity among children when they play the game. Mobile application in the education platform is not the new things for now. Mobile Edu is an implementation of a popular board game from Africa. To finish this game user required to the basic how-to-play puzzle (Oyelere et al., 2017)
Other article review explains more about research on game-based learning rather than do the prototype of the game. Some of the articles did not match with our review objectives.
| Type of game | Article review |
| Serious game | García-Ruiz & Santana-Mancilla, 2019; Gouin-Vallerand et al., 2018 |
| Interactive game | Paul et al., 2015; Rocha et al., 2019 |
| Collaborative game | Ramírez-Benavides et al., 2015; Maureira,2018 |
| Mobile game | Oyelere et al., 2017 |
Table 2: Type of game
4.2 Learning outcomes
Many researchers have mentioned that the educational game could be one way to get better grades in the exam. Game-based learning is alternative learning for children to understand and explore knowledge. Besides improving the learning process, GBL can also bring other effects, such as enjoyment, engagement and motivation.
Enjoyment
This analysis aims to discover the impact of game-based learning on children aged 4 to 7 years old. Most of the studies describe the children enjoyed when they play a game. Word out (Paul et al., 2015) is an interactive game that needs a player to know how to spell the word using the gesturing body. 41% of children are waiting for their turn because they excited to explore more about this game. In this case, children are curious to play this game again because they are eager to find the solution by their creative thinking.
Motivation
Few studies describe that using game-based learning for children as early as four years old could give them motivation and confidence. One study from preschool showed that children are motivated to pay full attention when they played the game—29 participants of 13 parents and 16 children who took part in this evaluation. Children who participate in game-based learning can bring enjoyment to them. For example, most of them are smiling when playing the game that can be seen when they won and receive the award. (Gouin-Vallerand et al., 2018)
Engagement
This section explains the children’s engagement toward game learning and how the children interact with the game. From (Rocha et al., 2019) describes the children who seem to catch up on how to play the game by writing the correct name animals with the image given. Overall, the children and teachers are delighted with the functionality and the design.
(Ramírez-Benavides et al., 2015) said the understanding of knowledge from the children would increase by applying the collaborative way in problem-solving. Other studies from Tania et al. is about developing a game for disabled children, and the experience from the children is very positive. They tried hard to finish the game because there are some difficulties in that game. Most of the selected studies get positive feedback from children, parents and teachers. For example, children asking whether the game can be used school, most of them liked to play the game again.
5.0 Discussion
From the result above, we analyzed the article with possible outcomes with expectations to narrate the impact of game-based learning towards children preschool. The result indicates to capture the effect of using game-based learning towards children’s performance by using systematic matrix review. Nevertheless, we want to highlight the article review is not enough explanation about the impact of game-based learning. For example, (Denner et al., 2019) show the framework of game application rather than explain more in detail about the impact of game-based learning for children aged 4 to 7 years old. The effect that can be concluded in this section is the engagement, motivation and enjoyment when they play the game. Other studies state that collaborative could bring the improvement of the children’s development process when they are trying to solve the problems in a group session. (Ramírez-Benavides et al., 2015)
There is some article review that did not meet with population criteria such as the age of children. For example, some review from (Hosseini et al., 2019) has mentioned the game is for the testing user in undergraduate students, but the finding is the same with our findings, which is finding the effect of learning performance among student in a learning context. Furthermore, there are difficulties in finding the article that clearly explains the impact of the game in the context of learning. For instance, the student able to improve their knowledge development and skills communication through game learning. Most of the article reviews show their findings other learning outcomes such as enjoyment, motivation and engagement with the game learning.
Four approaches to study queries research question, search terms, search strategies and Prisma are used for effective article use. Defines questions that use population, intervention, comparison, outcome and time as research question method. The strengths of research is an analysis using synonyms and critical subjects to raise questions. There are a synonym and the researcher’s main subject of use for obtaining relevant articles. The downside to this method is that excellent review articles are being difficult to obtain. While the search term benefits, the researcher will get a more accurate review of the article with the title, as it combines the main topics and years to do the research. Methods that use easy-to-find search strategies to get reviews of articles through ACM, Scopus and other search strategies still lack the articles generally found. Prisma was the last method utilized in the research. This approach can be achieved with a few steps each time an article is checked to find the correct topic.
A significant limitation of this study is the recognition that games are only for 4 to 7 years old as a basis for learning before they begin elementary school. Nevertheless, games are considered new instructional technology with great potential (Luxton-Reilly et al., 2018). In some articles, the researcher did not discuss the impact of games on student performance. Evaluating learning requires deep learning to truly capture game learning even beyond the stage and apply the result of this study to enhance the different aspects of the scope of significant learning. Therefore, this as a promising future that requires careful learning with enormous scope for children and primary school students. An exciting future direction is to investigate the perceptions of learning among primary school students.
6.0 Conclusion
Based on the primary road analysis of 40 journal articles, the top 12 path articles were identified and provided the basis for demonstrating the significant development of game-based learning from 2015 to 2020. Usually, the purpose of implementing assessment tools is to identify system strengths and weaknesses. There are many potentially relevant papers not listed in this survey, usually, because other papers report similar things or because their contributions are relatively small.
Games are inseparable with children because the new norm is now exposed to a variety of games. Gadgets are a fun weapon for children to play with. Game-based learning is one of the steps that can help children learn and play digitally. Although the game has an impact on children, it is still used in game-based learning because it is not very stressful for the children, but it is also used as a learning exercise. Game-based learning is not only for children ages 4-7, but there is an article that also supports the use of this game-based learning for elementary and high school students. (Hosseini et al., 2019) findings generally provided positive responses to the motivating questions regarding the effectiveness of GBL in higher education. (Gouin-Vallerand et al., 2018) effectiveness of the severe game into motivating children to participate in the educational activity suggested an improvement in their knowledge.
A review article related to game-based learning shows positive effects on children aged 4 to 7 years old. (Rocha et al., 2019) the result showed that the presented application allowed autonomous learning (as children can access their own correct and incorrect answers) and natural interaction. All participants completed the tasks successfully and without much effort (noticing that the profile register was the most difficult step). (Hosseini et al., 2019) GBL activities improve student perception of learning and mastery in higher education C.S. classes, and students are generally in favour of organized use of such methods, GBL increases student engagement and teamwork compared to traditional active learning activities, and the success and effectiveness of GBL methods depend heavily on the disciplinary culture and subject matter. Instructional strategies must much the type of knowledge and the subject matter.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by our lecturer Dr. Hadi bin Abdul Razak (University Utara Malaysia) who providing the material and teaching us how to write the systematic review
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Appendix
- Flow diagram
- Matrix Review
| Author | Title | Database | Framework | Intervention | Population | Outcomes | Conclusion |
| Felicia Clare Paul, Christabel Goh and Kelly Yap | Get creative with learning: Word out! A full body interactive game | ACM | Studies show that as children play, they create knowledge (Levin, 1996). Children interpret both learning and play as similar activities without clarifying them (Samuelsson and Carlsson, 2008). | Interactive game | A player from public museum exhibit in the Art Science Museum in Singapore and National Museum of Singapore | 84% were collaborative plays of Word Out. Children played with siblings, parents and even strangers. | Word Out nurtures the creative problem solver and incites communication with others while being a source of entertainment for children and others. |
| Kryscia Ramírez-Benavides, Franklin García and Luis A. Guerrero | Creating a protocol for collaborative mobile applications for kids between 4 and 6 years old | ACM | According to Prensky (2001), children born in the Information Age are digital natives, i.e., the constant use of technology transformed them into expert users | Mobile application | Children and teachers | Found that all messages defined in the design worked adequately to provide the communication rules for the client and server applications. | Since the applications were built for Android, the researcher decided to use JSON as the protocol message format. The decision was made taking into account current libraries available that provides fast serializing and de-serializing messages into Java Objects. |
| Tânia Rocha, João Barroso, Ricardo R. Nunes and Paulo Martins | Using game-based technology to enhance learning for children with learning disabilities: A pilot study | ACM | Ferreira (2016) The beneficiaries of multimedia educational software, which may be children or even adults, are easily attracted by the playful component associated with graphically pleasing interfaces and intuitive navigation. | Games based learning | two types of participants enrolling in two different assessment moments | Regarding satisfaction, children seem to be enrolled in the activities, and no one gave up, and all of them liked to use the application. The teacher that was observing the experience also gave positive feedback on what concerns the interaction. | All participants completed the tasks successfully and without much effort (noticing that the profile register was the most difficult step). |
| Author | Title | Database | Framework | Intervention | Population | Outcomes | Conclusion |
| Laura Benton, Asimina Vasalou, Leona Bunting, Wolmet Barendregt and Andrea Révész | What’s missing: The role of instructional design in children’s games-based learning | ACM | Inan et al. (2015) found that practice-based digital apps, such as games, were often used by children without extensive peer or teacher support | Game-based learning | Twenty-six children from three U.K. primary schools participated | The analysis showed the children experienced both action and understanding breakdown. There are four primary causes: the disconnect between action and expected outcome, misunderstanding game rules, difficulties with the underlying pedagogic approach and difficulty with necessary cognitive strategy. | Conclusion, the reveal apparent widespread usability issues within popular learning games, suggesting a need for the commercial sector to further engage with a formative evaluation of gameplay and child development needs. |
| Marcello A. Gómez Maureira | CURIO: a game-based learning toolkit for fostering curiosity | ACM | Curiosity and games overlap in various ways, whether games are the instrument for invoking it, or whether it is studied as an
an affective component in gameplay (Alexandar et al., 2016). |
Game-based learning | The three focus groups conducted for our development efforts generally
followed the same procedure outlined in this section. |
Both prior work and our focus groups show that games in the classroom need to be designed for teachers’ roles. | Prior research suggests that the teacher’s role needs to be considered to ensure the successful use of such games. |
| Solomon Sunday Oyelere & Jarkko Suhonen and Teemu H. Laine | Integrating Parson’s Programming Puzzles into a
the game-based mobile learning application |
ACM | According to Robins et al. (2003) novice programmers are likely to concentrate only on shallow knowledge, lack conceptual modelling skill, and fail to incorporate pertinent knowledge required for solving problems. | The game-based mobile learning application | Lecturer and student | A player that solves a puzzle correctly is awarded 0.5 points. Points are displayed along with the player’s name beside the timer. One star is awarded to a player that accumulated 4 points in a puzzle round. | This study offered the MobileEdu mobile learning system expansion to include a traditional African strategy board game Ayo with Parson’s puzzles as a possible solution to the problem of decrease in interaction, motivation, and engagement during the process of learning to program. |
| Author | Title | Database | Framework | Intervention | Population | Outcomes | Conclusion |
| Charles Gouin-Vallerand | Towards a severe mobile game environment for children self-learning | ACM | Klopfer et al. suggest that designing teams should focus on both learning and gameplay simultaneously from the beginning of the design process. Arnab et al. call attention to the fact that “despite the digital games’ potential in terms of interactivity, immersion and engagement, more work is still required to understand how to design better, administrate and evaluate digital games across different learning contexts and targets
.” |
Role-Playing Games | Participants were recruited in a multicultural french speaking Kindergarten in Montreal, Canada. | Suggests that the educational, and game design approaches were appropriate for our participants. Even with this encouraging result, we believe that further research, applying a more longitudinal evaluation approach, is necessary to fully understand how long should be the playing in order to children fully acquiring new competencies, without the need of supplementary learning. | The design of our educational tool as an RPG dangerous game was successful in motivating children with the learning activity. Children enjoyed playing with the learning game and gave positive feedback by enjoying playing the game and being willing to play it again. |
| Kai-Yu Tang, Chun-Hua Hsiao | Game-Based Research in Education | ACM | Kafai and Burke reviewed and synthesized 55 studies from the last decade on making games and learning. | Endgame | 55 studies on children’s learning effects through making their games. | The learning approach of team competition-based ubiquitous gaming, kids’ learning achievement, collective efficacy, and awareness of collaboration and communication, are enhanced. | The learning effectiveness of the game-based course is verified. In addition to learning achievement, the effect of game-based learning on students’ attitudes, motivation, self-efficacy, problem-solving ability, and collaboration is also confirmed. |
| Hadi Hosseini, Maxwell Hartt, and Mehrnaz Mostafapour | Learning I.S. Child’s Play: Game-Based Learning | ACM | Deci and Ryan, clearly distinguish the motivation behind various reasons and goals that lead to an action | Game-Based Learning | Game-based learning on students’ perception of learning. | Provides more flexibility for the inclusion of GBL activities. | Deviated from digital games and focused attention on the effectiveness of the traditional game design. |
| Author | Title | Database | Framework | Intervention | Population | Outcomes | Conclusion |
| Dominic Petronzio | numeracy apprehension in children aged 4-7 years | Research gate | Mphil research initial development of a numeracy apprehension scale for at-risk children aged 4-7 years | Numeracy mathematic learning. | Focusgroup to obtain insight from the parent, and teacher | Research and insight from primary care providers led to an initial 97-item numeracy apprehension scale. | The 19-item NAS addressed the limited research knowledge of factors influencing children’s numeracy experience between the age of 4-7 years and indicated that children could suffer from apprehension. |
| Jill Denner and Shannon Campe | Does Computer Game Design and Programming Benefit Children | ACM | Whittemore and Knafl suggest that an integrative review “is the only approach that allows for the combination of diverse methodologies.” | Computer game design. | A specific population of children. | The first extent to which research evidence supports some of the widely held beliefs about the benefit for children in their learning, attitude and confidence. Second, get two results on positive and negative results depends on the situation. | In an era of increasing emphasis on games, learning and creating, researchers and funder makers need research evidence to guide their decisions. |
| Miguel A. Garcia-Ruiz and Pedro C. Santana-Mancilla | Towards a usable serious game app to support children language therapy | ACM | Moldenhauer’s (2008) dangerous game that design to educate, train and entertain has been researched and used for speech and language therapy. | Game-based app. | Children of disability. | This method has been proven to be useful to conduct usability testing with children and provides excellent guidance on the logistic and actual usability testing with young participants. | Presented the design and development of a severe mobile game used to support language therapy of English tenses. |