EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF TRADITIONAL VS. GAME-BASED LEARNING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/vmjv4y98Keywords:
Game-Based Learning (GBL), Traditional Instruction, Educational Effectiveness, Student Engagement, Learning Outcomes, Comparative Study, Academic Performance, Pedagogical Approaches, Digital Learning, Instructional DesignAbstract
The recent rapid development of educational technology has dramatically changed the pedagogical methods and practices that teachers and researchers have been critically analyzing in terms of the relative effectiveness of both traditional lecture-based instruction and game-based learning (GBL) in promoting the student achievement and engagement. With the growing role of digital tools in academic settings, the comparative effects of these tools on the educational outcomes have become an urgent concern in education research. This increasing discussion warrants stringent empirical research to inform instructional choices in a variety of learning situations. Current literature shows that there is substantive amount of research on the cognitive, affective and motivational aspect of both pedagogical methods; studies confirm that game-based learning has a greater engagement, motivation and skill to think on higher levels as compared to traditional methods which are still demonstrating their efficacy in structured delivery of knowledge as well as the performance in standardized assessment. The main aims of the study are to: (1) compare academic achievement of students in traditional teaching and learning in games; (2) to examine engagement, motivation and satisfaction in both teaching and learning; and (3) to find out which demographic and subject related variables will moderate the effectiveness of instruction. The research design of this study is a survey-based research design which will use structured questionnaires to 360 respondents. The results of data analysis showed that GBL students had significantly higher mean scores on all three constructs, that is, Academic Performance (M = 3.91 vs. 2.93), Engagement and Motivation (M = 3.67 vs. 3.11), and Contextual Moderators (M = 3.96 vs. 2.90). The d effect sizes of Cohen were very large (0.745 to 1.280). These results refute the original hypothesis that traditional instruction is still superior in terms of knowledge retention, and indicate that an integrated pedagogical model can provide the most educational outcomes across different learner profiles.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Umesh Chand, Himesh Vyas, Amit Singh, Vipin Sharma, Sharad Sharma
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