Efectos de la implementación de estrategias de gamificación mediadas por tecnología en el aprendizaje significativo de los estudiantes de octavo grado en el área de Matemáticas.

Abstract

This study examined the effects of implementing technology-mediated gamification strategies on meaningful learning of mathematics among eighth-grade students at Colegio Parroquial Nuestra Señora de la Valvanera (COPAVAL), located in the Antonio Nariño district of Bogotá. The starting point was a specific classroom situation: low performance precisely during the transition from arithmetic to algebra, and a group that, in the diagnostic phase, described their mathematics classes as monotonous and disconnected from their daily lives. From this concern arose the question of whether a different approach, supported by play and technology, could reshape the way students related to the subject and, in turn, their learning. The research followed a qualitative approach, an action-research design and a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest component. The process included an exploratory interview with six students, a pretest applied to 21 students, six sessions of the gamified didactic unit developed on a custom web platform, a posttest applied to 25 students, and a final interview. The analysis combined three interrelated techniques: thematic analysis of the qualitative data, comparative and contrastive coding of the observation records, and descriptive statistics of the pretest, quizzes and posttest data, which allowed for the triangulation of the three sources and verification of the consistency of the findings. As for the results, the group's average rose from 52.4% to 79.6%, and 84% of the students reached a high or superior level. The strongest gains appeared in fractions, which was precisely where the diagnosis had revealed the deepest gaps. A particularly noteworthy finding came from session 3, carried out as autonomous work from home, which demonstrated the platform's potential as an independent learning resource. These findings confirm that technology-mediated gamification, when designed around the actual needs of the group, does have a real impact on mathematics learning.