Defined as the utilization of game elements in nongame environments, gamification has been frequently used in education in recent years. The aim of the present study is to summarize the studies previously conducted on the use of gamification in education through a systematic literature review. When the studies conducted in 2000–2021 were examined, four main dimensions came to the fore: (i) the aim of gamification studies, (ii) the learning fields where gamification studies were carried out, (iii) the level of education at which gamification studies were carried out, and (iv) how gamification was integrated into the learning environment. The results showed that gamification is used for various educational purposes, at many learning levels in various environments, and in a wide variety of learning fields. In most of the studies, the positive effects of gamification and its potential to solve problems in education were reported.

In this study, based on the expectation of high achievement and the need for strong support from all students in mathematics education, the effect of geometry instruction enriched with various activities on students' Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Levels and spatial abilities was examined. The participants of the present study, in which the weak experimental design was adopted, consisted of 22 students, who passed from the 6th grade to the 7th grade, living in disadvantaged areas in a medium-sized province of Turkey and studying at public schools in those regions. In the research, Van Hiele Geometry Test and Spatial Ability Test were used as pre-test and post-test. In the training given between the pre-test and the post-test, creative drama, digital story writing, origami, geometric construction, GeoGebra, GeoCadabra, SketchUp, educational games, and Small Basic activities were included. While no significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test in the scores obtained from the Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Test. It was determined that there was a significant difference in favour of the post-test in the scores obtained from the Spatial Ability Test. In this test, the effect size value was 0.591, and it was seen that the effect was large. The study emphasizes the positive effects of presenting different types of activities in order to provide strong support in geometry instruction.