Design and use of a mobile game developed to raise environmental awareness in secondary schools

Abstract

This design-based research aims to develop, improve, and evaluate a mobile game to improve secondary school students' environmental awareness. The research was conducted with 74 sixth-grade students and four teachers at a secondary school in Bursa during the 2022-2023 academic year. The environmental awareness scale, observation notes, and semi-structured interview forms were used as data collection tools. The results showed a significant difference between the scores in the pre-test and post-test in favour of the post-test. The developed mobile game significantly affects environmental awareness. The observation and interview data were analyzed using cyclic coding and thematic analysis methods. Three themes named "the effects on motivational processes," "the effects of structuring of knowledge," and "the effects of environmental awareness" emerged. Findings showed that the game mechanics included in the developed mobile game positively affected the "autonomy and self-efficacy" of the intrinsic motivation elements of the students to achieve their individual goals. Findings also revealed that the mobile game improves students' feelings of attention, interest, satisfaction, and confidence. In addition, it has been found that students structure their knowledge by resorting to reflection with the score table and instant feedback mechanisms in the mobile game.