Huang Miao, Wang Lei
School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China, Nanjing, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 3;20(9):e0330896. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330896. eCollection 2025.
Instruction in coding for children has emerged as a significant means of fostering computational thinking, with gamification serving a crucial reinforcing function in this educational process. This experimental study integrates four principal gamification elements-role-playing, rewards, challenges, and cooperation-into unplugged children's coding education tools to examine their impacts on children's flow experience and learning engagement. Under the theoretical framework of Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R), researchers developed an unplugged coding education prototype named "Coding Adventure," employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach with 295 Chinese elementary students (aged 8-10 years). Subsequent qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 stratified participants. Empirical findings demonstrate that role-playing and cooperation effectively enhance children's flow experience when engaging in coding education tools. Children role-play heroes and engage in "real fights," engage in teamwork and communicate with others, which can bring them into a flow experience. The flow experience effectively enhances children's learning engagement. The main reasons are the immersion, upgrade experience, practicality, goal-orientedness, teamwork and partner's suggestions brought by gamification elements. Moreover, rewards and cooperation also directly positively influence children's learning engagement. Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, engagement in teamwork and receiving encouragement and suggestions from interactions with classmates are thought to increase children's motivation to learn. This study examined the effects of diverse gamification elements on children's flow experience and learning engagement in an unplugged gamified coding education tool under the framework of the S-O-R theory. Additionally, this study demonstrated important practical implications by providing developers of coding education tools with a clear path to enhancing participants' sense of immersion and achievement.
针对儿童的编码教学已成为培养计算思维的重要手段，游戏化在这一教育过程中发挥着关键的强化作用。本实验研究将四个主要的游戏化元素——角色扮演、奖励、挑战和合作——融入到非插电式儿童编码教育工具中，以检验它们对儿童心流体验和学习参与度的影响。在刺激-机体-反应（S-O-R）的理论框架下，研究人员开发了一个名为“编码冒险”的非插电式编码教育原型，对295名中国小学生（8至10岁）采用了解释性序列混合方法。随后对12名分层参与者进行了定性访谈。实证结果表明，角色扮演和合作在儿童使用编码教育工具时能有效增强他们的心流体验。孩子们扮演英雄并参与“实战”，进行团队合作并与他人交流，这能让他们进入心流体验。心流体验有效地提高了儿童的学习参与度。主要原因是游戏化元素带来的沉浸感、升级体验、实用性、目标导向性、团队合作以及伙伴的建议。此外，奖励和合作也直接对儿童的学习参与度产生积极影响。内在和外在奖励、参与团队合作以及从与同学的互动中获得鼓励和建议被认为能增加儿童的学习动力。本研究在S-O-R理论框架下，考察了不同游戏化元素对非插电式游戏化编码教育工具中儿童心流体验和学习参与度的影响。此外，本研究通过为编码教育工具开发者提供一条明确的途径来增强参与者的沉浸感和成就感，展示了重要的实践意义。
