A ‘KAHOOT!’ Approach: The Effectiveness of Game-Based Learning for an Advanced Placement Biology Class

Abstract

Background.Keeping high school students engaged and motivated to learn complex scientific concepts can be difficult and challenging; this is especially true if the task feels daunting and unfamiliar to the students. Incorporating educational technology, such as KAHOOT, into the classroom can help students learn scientific material even when it is difficult. Aim. Our objective is to determine the effectiveness of gamification in an Advanced Placement Biology (AP biology) classroom by using the online game ‘KAHOOT!’ as a supplement to traditional teacher-centered learning. In addition, we determine the use of ‘KAHOOT!’ in enhancing student engagement and the learning experience for biology. Methods. A presentation on Transcription and Translation was given to a small group of high school AP Biology students ( n = 18, 18 women). After the presentation, the students were given 15 questions and twenty seconds to answer each question in the ‘KAHOOT!’ game. Both the students and the teacher were given a post-activity survey to assess their interest in the activity. Results. Based on the responses in the Students’ Survey, ‘KAHOOT!’ can be used as a gamified assessment tool to help students learn the topic of ‘Transcription and Translation’ by actively engaging them in a fun and exciting manner. Conclusion. The overall activity had a positive impact on the students and teacher as the students enjoyed learning Transcription and Translation through the use of ‘KAHOOT!’.

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“…When asked to respond the item 9, participants believe that Kahoot game-based environment significantly affected the students' learning motivation levels. This result illustrated consistency with the research findings of other contemporary researches (Batsila & Tsihouridis, 2018;Bawa, 2018;Baydas & Cicek, 2019;Esteves et al, 2017;Guardia et al, 2019;Hou, 2018;Jones et al, 2019;Lauermann & Barbosa, 2018;Licorish et al, 2018;Wang, 2015;Wang & Lieberoth, 2016;Wang & Tahir, 2020) confirming that the Kahoot session positively influenced the motivation levels of the students. However, when using Kahoot, one should seriously consider how to create well-designed questions.…”

“…As presented in table 3, a vast majority participant (81.48%, versus only 18.5% who expressed negative responses) admitted that Kahoot activities assisted their students' understandings. This finding corresponds to initial literature (Baszuk & Heath, 2020;Esteves et al, 2017;Jones et al, 2019;Licorish et al, 2018) which confirm that Kahoot creates the opportunity to assist the students' conceptual understanding about the topics given. For the twelfth statement, the data indicated that more than half of the participants (n = 14, 51.8%) agreed that Kahoot significantly affected their students' learning performance, which is higher than 48.1% of those participants who expressed uncertain responses.…”

Desain Pembelajaran Matematika Berbasis Gamifikasi untuk Meningkatkan Minat Belajar Siswa

“…Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini, kuis daring semacam ini merupakan alat yang efektif untuk memantik minat siswa terhadap pembelajaran matematika. Hasil ini sejalan dengan temuan beberapa penelitian lain (Göksün & Gürsoy, 2019;Jones, Katyal, Xie, Nicolas, Leung, Noland, & Montclare, 2019;Plump & LaRosa, 2017).…”

The Role of Technology in Biology Teaching During and Post Pandemic Era

“…Kahoot as one of an example of game-based learning platforms can be used as assessment tool to help students learning biology. These activities had positive impact to both teacher and students as the students enjoyed learning biology [23].…”