Learners’ growth mindset: Can bichronous gamified/interactive content make a difference?

Educational psychology is one of the core concepts in the area of teaching and learning and plays a key role in any educational context including language instruction. Learners’ mindset (fixed or growth) may have an impact on the learning process and the ubiquitous technology can be of influence in making a change in students’ mindset. Despite the claim that through practice learners can improve in their subjects, many still consider it futile without related innate intelligence. Finding solutions for shifting this detrimental mindset is essential. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the effect of using gamified and interactive content (H5P) on shifting English learners’ mindset, moving from a fixed mindset into a growth one. Another purpose was to discover the probable relationship between learners’ different General English (GE) levels, the rate of their initial mindset, and the proportion of change induced in their mindset throughout the course.

The participants consisted of 225 students aged 12-13 (111: experimental; 114: control). After conducting a placement test and using Dweck’s (2017) mindset questionnaire to measure their initial mindset, both groups went through a 12-week-long course, receiving similar instruction, except for the teaching phase. While the experimental group’s course was conducted through gamified and interactive content hosted on the Learning Management System, the control group’s was conducted live through web conferencing. Afterward, the learners redid the questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using ANCOVA and ANOVA statistical tests.

To compare the GE levels two by two, a Scheffe test was used, and based on its results, it can be deduced that mindset differences mean for Pre-A1 (p = 0.001), A1 (p = 0.001) and A2 and above (p = 0.025) were all significant. Comparing the mindset differences means between the three English level groups, it can be inferred, however, that the Pre-A1 group was the highest in mindset differences mean, while A2 was the lowest. In other words, the weaker was the students’ level of GE, the higher the amount of change in their mindset type towards a growth one. The findings of the present study showed that the use of gamified interactive content (H5P) in the bichronous format of the LMS can have a significant effect on improving high school EFL learners’ Growth Mindset levels by 39%. The contents, which were provided for students in both gamified and H5P classes, resulted in immediate feedback exchanges, which raised the motivational level and encouraged them to go on with different interactive tasks and activities.

After carrying out the research, the researchers concluded that using gamified and interactive content as part of the learning process could induce a Growth Mindset in learners, higher GE students mostly had higher initial rates of Growth Mindset, and weaker learners experienced greater shifts towards growth. This study can motivate language learners and teachers to utilize gamified and interactive content in online courses and can help educational system policymakers notice more deeply the effect the application of gamification and H5P plugins have on teaching English, which can result in new curriculum development for schools.