EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Efficacy of Gamification in Developing an Autotelic Mentality

Sonya Breaux
Kennesaw State University

Author Note
This paper was prepared for EDRS 8900 Applied Field Research
Taught by Dr. Cutts
Introduction

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Today, the concept of gamification is playing an important role in our society. Why? Just
take a moment and look around. The first reason is that we are surrounded by technology that
allows us to have contact with the rest of the world in the blink of an eye, and second is that the
same technology has led us to compete against one another.
Over 5 million people spend an average of 45 hours a week playing games, and worldwide, we play 3 billion hours a week of video and computer games. (Knewton, 2014). The use of
logical skills, game mechanics, and external information to engage users and solve real problems
is the base of this concept. (Kim, 1999). Kim discusses gamification as the design of the player's
journey where the player improves over time, giving him or her something to master and build
on emotional engagement. In the same light, gamification in the classroom setting might allow
students to become the masters of their own studies and engage more fully in their educational
experience.
Orientation topic
Recently, businessmen and teachers have expressed the importance of keeping students
engaged in double win-win situations. Numerous people are convinced that it is in school where
students develop a self-driven mentality (autotelic). Education today in the United States is
losing the battle against technology, which is inherently easier for most people. Most of the time
the students can handle the technology much better than the teachers. Sometimes we lose the
battle when we are not able to motivate and encourage our students to be passionate about
education.
While most agree that this issue deserves attention, the majority of the people go on
ignoring it. This literature review examines one approach to finding out the efficacy of
gamification in education. The paper also finds the correlation between the effectiveness of

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

gamification in young adults and the motivation to have a self-driven mentality. This research
study wants to find possible strategies to use in the classroom combining traditional pedagogical
strategies and technological tools to approach this problem. Because of the fact my students do
not want to continue taking higher levels of Spanish in my school, I find very important to have a
solution of this kind in my classroom since the dropout rate from the Spanish level 3 and 4
courses is so high.
Purpose statement
The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of combining traditional
pedagogical strategies with technological tools in the foreign language classroom to motivate and
engage students to continue taking higher levels of Spanish in my school. This research also
sought to impact the use of technology in Spanish classes using gamification to develop an
autotelic mentality in the students.
Research Question
1.

What kind of gamification and strategies work better for young adults when motivating
them to continue taking the Spanish Language classes?

2.

Can the students become autotelic in both the manner they think and the way they apply
themselves to learning?

3.

What programs or strategies can teachers use to motivate the autotelic mentality in their
students?
Importance of this study
Billions of dollars have been invested to invade our world with the games companies in
our society encourage us to play. Gamification in our society has turned into a powerful tool and
a smart way to motivate, engage and challenge customers. Consumers become more loyal or

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

participate the most when different kind of rewards or daily satisfactions are available because
these make them feel they have the power in their hands (Lee & Hammer, 2011).
Gamification is defined as the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game
contexts. (4 ways to bring gamification of Education to your classroom, 2013) Several
examples of this are seen nowadays in a variety of settings. For instance, we were more likely to
spend more when credit cards started implementing the reward points system. We were
motivated to try getting more points that could later be exchanged for money and gifts or receive
other free items from our favorite stores. Another example of gamification is plagued in our
social media sites where completion bars are used to motivate users to expand their profile by
showing the percentage of their profile completed. Even in our electric / hybrid cars, there are
bars that display the waste of gas or how well you conserve your car resources. Additionally,
there are companies offering special cards to show appreciation for your loyalty to their products
or restaurants. They notify you and send special incentives to your email every time you spend a
specific amount of money purchasing their goods makes you want to continue doing so. We are
surrounded by so many unique customer IDs that rank us or label us, and we feel so motivated
and engaged that we want to continue the game (Gamifeye, 2012). These kind of games in our
society have motivated us to be better consumers and waste less, for this reason, games help us
increase motivation through engagement and reward. Schools should not get left behind. They
must prepare our future citizens to face challenges with intelligence not madness.
Currently, we are not seeing the kind of enthusiasm observed in those consumers at our
schools in our students. Instead, we hear students repeatedly expressing their dislike of school by
saying that school would be more fun without the need to attend class or that school should be
closed. The alarming statistics on dropouts are screaming at us. Numbers like 3,030,000, the

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

number of students we lose each year, or 8,300, the number of students that drop out per DAY in
the United States, this is something that anyone who is actually concerned about education
should be distressed about (Education Week, 2014). We are losing the battle, but we do see
positive data like the percent of customers completing tasks once the incentive of receiving
reward points or badges for their loyalty or other reasons is established. That percentage that was
once at 10% but has now increased to 80% (Van Antwerp, 2014). However, one can be very
concerned about the statistics that show the number of users registered to a site. For example,
Instagram (Moore, 2011), a popular social media site based on pictures, adds 130,000 users per
week, or 18 people per day. And this is a number that increases day after day for this site only
which has become quite popular amongst the teen population. Now lets picture Facebook, or
Google Circles, or Twitter; in all of them one can see that there are more people engaged with
playing games on their computer or mobile devices than there are students engaged in school. In
this day and age 72% of households play computer or video games. 18% of them are teens, while
53% are between 18 and 49 years old. Notice the jump from 18% to 53%. Something needs to be
done to engage, challenge, motivate, and promote the return of our students to schools and to our
classrooms with the conviction to succeed, learn and apply the knowledge that they gained in the
past.
I started working at Woodstock High School last year, and I observed that the dropout
rate in our department of World Languages was alarming. We started the program with 245
students in Spanish 1 and 455 students in level 2 since many of the students coming from middle
school fed into our level 2 Spanish class. The plan was to keep as many students enrolled in
Spanish as we could, but instead, the number of students in the program was descending at a
rapid rate. Once students realized Spanish 3 was an optional class and that the only incentive was

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

the possibility of getting college credit for taking the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam
provided by the College Board, many of them stopped taking Spanish.
Last year, the dropout rate became more noticeable since the same issue had now been a
concern for several consecutive years. Unfortunately, few things have been done to attempt to
improve this situation. Our program for the past few years has always started with a high number
of students, around 500, and ended with 8-10 students taking the AP Spanish class. The other
students decide to drop out or prefer to take other elective classes. This is one of the main
reasons this study is so important to us. If we can implement the gamification system in a simple
way to motivate, engage, and challenge students, we will develop autotelic (self-driven)
mentalities in students making them eager to attend class and be prepared for whatever comes.
Gamification will help students develop marketing skills and other essentials needed to
may use succeed in our society such as problem-solving tactics and personal qualities such as
persistence, creativity, and resilience (Lee & Hammer, 2011). Motivation is the base of
preparing autotelic mentalities and developing powerful cognitive, emotional and social skills. I
am convinced that the results that come from gamification are especially important for
developing 21st century skills which go beyond computers and technology according to Hanover
research (Lawrence, 2014). The critical skills for the 21st century learners include collaboration
and teamwork; creativity and imagination; critical-thinking skills; and problem solving.
In addition to these skills, Lawrence cites other critical skills for success such as: flexibility,
global and cultural awareness, leadership, and informational literacy. Our students will not
develop any of these skills in school unless we engage and motivate them to do so. The main
reason we should adopt and adapt gamification as part of our lessons is to develop autotelic
mentalities.

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Games are everywhere. Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Growtopia are a few where
participants can share, grow and learn together. Why not use the same archetypes and apply them
in education to motivate and recreate a similar autotelic mentality? Research has shown that the
more interactivity that takes place in games, the more informative feedback that will be given. It
is natural that intrinsic motivation comes into play. Dr. Peterson explains this using a classic
puzzle toy. The player does not only do it for points and rewards but for ...the pure intrinsic
pleasure they get from seeing all the colors lined up (Shapiro, 2013).
Definition of terms
Sense of autotelic mentality
The more achievements students gain, the more choices and experiences they have, and
the more they can use games to be able to control their choices and results, the more they will try
until they succeed. (TED talks, 2012) The idea of a student being able to choose his/her destiny
is what encourages the autotelic mentality. In the research conducted by Peck and Wiggins,
where they experimented with manipulating involvement, they found that when a haptic element
(technological circle) is present, high autotelics are more persuaded regardless of their
involvement with the message. However, for low autotelics, a haptic element increases
persuasion under conditions of low versus high involvement with the message. (Peck, J., &
Johnson, J. 2011).
Autotelic
The word autotelic is used to describe people who are internally driven and may exhibit a
sense of purpose and curiosity. Several authors refer to an autotelic person as a person with
autonomy. This determination is an exclusive difference from being externally driven, where

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

things such as comfort, money, power, or fame are the motivating forces. (Blesaw, n.d) However
motivation with an autotelic mentality is intrinsic.
Learning Style
Learning style and motivation go hand in hand. There are intrinsic and extrinsic factors
that allow students to develop the self-driven desire to learn. (Docebo, 2014) When students own
their knowledge of how they learn using those parts and pieces of information, they are able to
share ideas and incorporate common learning styles to maximize the success of their pursuit of
learning.
Motivation
The term motivation is derived from the Latin verb movere (to move). The idea of movement is
reflected in such commonsense ideas about motivation as something that gets us going, keeps us
working, and helps us complete tasks. (D.H. Schunk|P. R. Pintrich|J. Meece, 2014). In this
research the motivation will be working towards the development of autotelic mentality, the
motivation will be the inner force that gives stimuli to the students beliefs and affects the way
they act and behave.
Literature Review
Introduction
The idea of using gamification in daily lessons is to make education more engaging and
meaningful to the students inside and outside the school. Not only that, but it also prepares them
for the outside world. Several claim that gamification is the optimal experience to illuminate the
way to happiness (Doug Belshaws blog. n.d). Gamification in the classroom is modeled after
gamification experienced in companies today. After experimenting with video games and social
media, companies saw that they facilitate their clients learning by allowing them to interact with

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

others. (Roberts, 2014) Gaming is used to engage employees and ultimately to change their
behavior: GAMIFICATION: Win, Lose or Draw? (Cover story), 2014.
The key to gamification is to provide an incentive for the work to be done and not instill
fear. An element of gamification includes XP. XP or Experience Points are currently starting to
be implemented in the educational area. This gamification in education has been encouraging
students towards self-motivation. (Weinstein, 2012). Growing rewards are helping students strive
to achieve a higher level, challenging themselves and others in the game, and instead of
experiencing feelings of failure, they feel accomplished. Self-motivation (autotelic) in students
can potentially be induced by teachers, and their group members continue to encourage this
through teamwork. (Zhi-Hong, 2014) Is it possible to believe that there is a tendency or pattern
in this model?
Technology can be use as an excellent tool to engage and motivate students to learn
(Laverick, 2014). The studies promotes higher engagement and as a consequence higher
achievement, and motivation here is the bridge to an autotelic mentality.
Advantages and disadvantages
Let's take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of this system. In one hand, we
have the use of the same intriguing tactics and concepts of gaming that can be applied to the
education system. On the other, there are concerns about how our students would be evaluated
and how their motivation to attend school, which is already dropping dramatically, would be
affected. This is because the school does not provide interventions to students who may need a
talk about the importance to going to school, and there is a need to correctly identify the students
who will drop out. Learning styles and many other variables imply this will address the urgent
need to challenge and engage students in the school environment. (Browers, 2012)

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

10

The current grading system is highly criticized by professionals because instead of

encouraging interest and desire to learn, assignments are decreasing students interest levels
(Browers, 2012). In this kind of environment, it is almost impossible to foster autotelic
mentalities. Instead, we are creating automatons who are ready to respond to multiple choice
questions and reply to prompts as they are requested or trained to do. It is important to include
other studies here that make emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of this kind of testing or
assessments.
Barriers
Although there is currently very little research being done in this field, there are some
who have tried to put into practice gamification in their classrooms. To begin with, let's look at
what they have done. Professor Lee Sheldon, in efforts to combat this unproductive way of
teaching, tested it in a new version of his class at Indiana University. Each assignment was
designed based on individual ability levels instead of class wide achievements. Teamwork was
the focus, in order to reward everybody instead of recognizing just one student for his/her
achievements. Sheldon's system encouraged participation and a positive class-driven mindset.
(Adam, 2013) There are no results posted about the strategy carried out in his class yet. My goal
with this research is to come up with a methodology, find new technological programs and
implement an effective system to use in the classroom.
Another set of barriers that should be considered in this model is the lack of time for
collaborative planning or training to use technology, this has been presented in an article by
Jewett and MacPhee (2012). They defend the process of hands on active learning that
incorporates technologies, and they believe that teachers need longer periods of time to learn, not
only an hour or four of professional development. Today it is imperative to use technology in

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

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class. Our world is surrounded by technology and recent research shows the use of technology
has increased in society, but there has decrease between teachers and students in the
classroom(Blackwell, 2014).
In our culture more people are trying to create new ways to attract peoples attention,
either with an arcade machine, the piano stairs in Odenplan, or the Biggest Energy Saver contest
which saved as much as 46.5% of energy. (Gamification, 2015). This clearly demonstrates that
gamification has positive effects in our society. There are numerous examples in education where
technology was not being used such as the Fantasy Geopolitics. Mr. Nelson was successful
with this unique pedagogical technique of gamification to fundraise $12,000 in one week.
Another example in education that used technology to highly motivate students was the guild
project created by Lampe, a professor at Michigan University (Gamification, 2015). He gave the
autonomy to students to become more engaged in their own learning (autotelic mentality) and it
successfully empowered his students. There are several cases we can continue citing that
demonstrate the advantages of having the gamification in education. It is vital to use the
gamification process as a methodology and motivational source in foreign language classes.
Methodology
This action research will be studied and developed to find a practical solution to the
specific problem of this study. It will also provide an opportunity for educators to reflect on their
own practices (Creswell, 2012). According to Efron and Ravid (2013), a pool of mixed methods
will be used, with which ...both methods of data collection, quantitative and qualitative, are
included... However, in this study, the qualitative data brings more evidence than the
quantitative. A couple of interviews will be conducted and the students will complete a brief
survey. The interviews will consist of open questions which ask about the participants

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viewpoints and their experiences with using technology in their past Spanish classes (qualitative
data). In addition to the interviews, I will keep a journal to make observations of my students
attitudes and body language (qualitative data). Finally, there will be a comparison of the SLO test
at the beginning of the school year and the SLO test taken around the end of the school year
(quantitative data) in order to collect accurate information regarding the students academic
progress. The action research study will address a specific and practical issue, which is the kind
of gamification and strategies that works better for young adults with the purpose to develop
autotelic mentality. The goal of my triangulation, which includes the interviews, the journal and
the SLO pre/post test comparison, is to assess the effectiveness of my gamification strategies in
the classroom.
In order to identify a specific methodological design, I will engage in practical action
research (Creswell, 2012, p. 579). Using this research, it is expected to improve students
learning and motivation. In the educational system, it will be necessary to observe local
practices. Notes will be posted in the journal. The responses to individual interviews will be used
to gather information about this issue to enrich the Spanish language classes and positively
transform students autotelic mentality. A plan of action will be implemented. This plan will
focus on teacher development and student learning. (Creswell, 2012).
Initially, surveys will be completed by the students to determine their interests and
motivation to take Spanish class. In a weekly journal, reflections on the Spanish teachers classes
and additional notes about suggestions for future lessons will be recorded. The students tests
scores will also be part of the data I will collect to make the triangulation for this research.
The same content and curriculum will be taught in all classes. Initially, two web pages
will be used to motivate students to participate. The collection, analysis and interpretation of data

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will result in the development of an action plan which will then be enacted. The practical action
research will be followed so the students can increase their motivation and, in turn, increase their
language skills. The study will focus on me as the teacher or coach (teacher-as-researcher) and
the students as the trainees. The main purpose is to help the teacher develop her ability to engage
students, motivate them, and inspire an autotelic mentality within them in order to increase the
number of students registering for higher level Spanish language classes such as Spanish IV and
AP Spanish.
This study will follow the dialectic action research spiral. It will cycle back and forth
between data collection, a focus, and analysis and interpretation (Mills, 2011). Observations will
be made in the journal; a list of possible gamification activities to implement in class will be
made. Look, think, and act (Creswell, 2012). The cycle will be repeated to refine the
technique, and after three cycles, a second survey was given to the same students to be compared
with their initial thoughts. One-on-one interviews with a couple of students were also conducted
at this time in order to gain more specific information about their thoughts about the use of
technology in my class. The purpose of this plan was to gather as much reliable evidence as
possible about the efficacy of technology usage in my classes.
Participants
One hundred two students will participate in this study along with their Spanish teacher.
Of these there are 60 males and 42 females who are taking Spanish 3 Honors. They are between
the ages of 15 and 17, and according to a survey taken at the beginning of the year, 80% of them
do not want to continue taking Spanish after this year because they only need that last year to
make their college application minimally superior to others.
Data Collection

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This study was initiated in May of 2014 when students were told for the first time to
complete summer work before their vacation drew to an end. Out of the 102 students enrolled, 93
students turned in their summer work on the first day of school in August. The summer packet
included the development of all language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).
Completing activities in each one of those skills required the use of various technologies and
communication with their teacher through the use of cell phones.
In past years, I used to conduct a survey on paper the first day of school about the
students learning styles. This year I used a digital version. I found this page on education
planner.org (http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml)
which provided 20 questions and afterwards provided the students with immediate feedback. The
feedback contains advice on the best way for them to study and learn new material. The learning
styles were classified into auditory, tactile, and visual. This will be the first time these students
will learn about their own learning styles. The objective of this survey is to show students a bit
about themselves and to provide them with strategies to follow when they are struggling in my
class. Prevention (giving a heads up, like one of the main principles of the game) is the key
objective of the first step of this research. This survey needs to be performed in the first two
weeks before the actual methodology takes place. (See http://tinyurl.com/n9dgq3w, click on
Personal information)
After that, students will complete a survey with their likes and dislikes about different
topics such as books, games, foods, movies and their past Spanish classes with other teachers. I
will tabulate their responses and take notes in my journal about the things that bother them the
most and the things that they like. I will teach a unit for one month using the traditional lectures
and assessments as done in my school. Then in the next unit, I will make some interventions and

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

15

modifications such as creating specific activities to promote gamification, so that I can better
motivate students to be more eager to participate and work as a team. I will continue to take
notes in a journal. I will print the results of their prior test and the following assessment for the
last unit in order to make a triangulation. Based on the results, I am planning to re-adjust and try
the same or a different technique to teach according to the results. Finally, I will summarize the
findings, recommend actions, and identify specific strategies and specifications about who will
be monitoring, how they will collect the data, how long the data collection will take, and the
resources needed to carry out the action.
DATA ANALYSIS
Interviews
I conducted two one-on-one interviews with students from different periods that are
attending my class this year. Both students agreed that they did a lot of book work and
worksheets. The students confirmed in the interviews that this year was more interactive and
there was a lot of speaking practice involved in class. One student said: my whole class is in
here (pointing at his cell phone).
Another interview I conducted reveals the importance of technology in class, how it
affects the ways the students are studying now, and how they are implementing the use of
technology in their daily lives. Expressions like I have learned more this year than in my past
two years of Spanish allow one to understand how the role of technology in class has
transformed the students attitudes towards learning another language. Using apps to record
themselves as they speak and then allowing them to play back their voices, for example,
encourages them to make a better effort next time to sound like a native speaker. It feels more
common to us. I had never done a recording of my voice before this class. The use of

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

16

technology and creating game strategies like role plays in different places make practicing the
language more fun and enjoyable. Another student confirmed that it was easy to see everything
she has learned. An evident increase in self-motivation to keep up with good work and to not fail
was seen in the students I interviewed.
Finally, the students interviewed reported that because of the interactive technology used
in the class, such as their cell phones, they had a lot more time to revise their own work and are
more productive. The gamification I implemented during the warm-up gives students the
sensation and desire to want to participate in the activities. They are constantly trying to gather
more points, and their body position and hyperactivity reflects how important it is for them to
answer each question correctly and collect more points. The interviewed students reflected these
thoughts and specifically mentioned the exciting and fun warm up activities they love
participating in each day. Interviewing these two students allowed me to get an inside look into
the minds of the students and learn more about their feelings and thoughts towards the
gamification and technology than the surveys could reveal.
Journal
The second element of my triangulation was the journal which I used to make various
notes regarding my class during the implementation process. In this journal, I noted a number of
observations about the students body language and attitudes during different activities that
incorporated technology in my class. The journal allowed me to collect and revise lots of
valuable information to better understand the students responses to the activities and the efficacy
that they displayed.
The first observation I made was that the position of the students bodies demonstrated
their willingness to work in any activity. Because the students knew that they were able to be

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17

rewarded as a result of the gamification point system, they would often times be on the edge of
their seats ready to be the first one to answer questions and receive their points.
Through my journal, I learned that it is necessary to have clear instructions and expected
outcomes listed for each activity so that students can follow instructions and be more
participantive in the class. For example, activities like Kahoot needed to be very specific since
the very beginning when the students are about to start playing. Comments like, When are we
playing again? and Can we please do another Kahoot quiz soon? displayed their excitement
and engagement towards those types of activities.
During the implementation, there were some students who clearly expressed their opinion
about certain activities within different tasks. For example, the student shown in Appendix B
wrote in Spanish, Me encanta este blog (I love this blog). This comment demonstrates that
students love using technology to express their feelings and emotions about many topics. In this
blog, the implementation consisted in giving a topic to the students along with a source of
information from which they gather information to support their ideas. This was the first time
they wrote an essay supported with real documents and articles, and the gamification procedure
awarded extra points to the first five students who posted their complete answers in the blog.
This task compared with a pen-and-paper task was more successful and it enriched students
perspectives towards sharing and defending their thoughts with an argumentative essay
(Appendix A).
All in all, the journal revealed to me that the students highly enjoyed certain activities
more than others and that they were excited about participating in class. The blog activities and
the Kahoot quizzes were very popular in class, which I noted in the journal and was able to
analyze afterwards. After scanning and analyzing the notes I took in the journal, it is clear that

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

18

the students motivation increased as a result of the gamification; however, their autotelic
mentalities did not seem to augment greatly.
SLO test
In order to compare the results between the SLO1 test given to 112 students at the beginning of
the school year and the SLO2 test given recently, I chose the t-Test: Paired Two Sample for
Means. The table below shows the results:
Because our P value was less than alpha .05, we can reject the null hypothesis and

conclude with statistical significance that implementing technology in the class changed the
students language skills.
If we look at the graph below one can see the more people are scoring in between a smaller range
and in the second graph below the same amount of people are scoring in a higher range.
The test shows improvement over the course of time between the two SLOs, one which
was taken at the beginning of the school year (SLO1) and the other which was taken very
recently (SLO2). Over the course of the year, I have implemented numerous resources using
technology in my teaching. These resources have helped my students improve their language
skills, their tests grades and their SLO scores. (Appendix B)
Limitations and recommendations
The selection of technology used plays an important role in the process of engagement
for the students. It is important that students are recognized for their achievements and are able
to demonstrate their progress. Unfortunately, this type of system can conflict with our traditional
school rules because other students grades should not be made public to the class. For this
reason, I would like to do further research in the future using more types of technology over
longer time periods. The participants should be selected from different years and levels, rather

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19

than only coming from one level of Spanish class. Implementing this methodology over longer
periods of time will allow for more accurate, full results. Also, the students felt they are
practicing talking much more than writing, which tells me I should try to keep the programs
balanced enough so that my students get a fair share of each aspect of learning a foreign
language (Appendix C). Finally, the programs which are selected to be used during class
instruction should be carefully reviewed before final implementation to ensure that they are the
best options for the benefit of the students.
Conclusion
Many articles and various research reports share the common opinion that gamification in
education is an urgent need which will benefit our students greatly. Our students need to feel
challenged, motivated and engaged in school, and it is imperative to promote the autotelic
mentality in order to pave the way for our future generations.
There is not much existing evidence about how the gamification will motivate students to
develop an autotelic (self-driven) mentality, yet my experience revealed that technology is the
bridge that helped the students develop their genuine desire for engagement in the language
class. More research needs to be done on the best practices that could be implemented to
support, encourage, challenge and bring back the autotelic mentality in our students today.

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References
4 Ways To Bring Gamification of Education To Your Classroom | Top Hat. (2013, January 1).
Retrieved November 1, 2014, from http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-inyour-classroom/
Adam, A. (2013). The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - By Lee
Sheldon.. Teaching Theology & Religion, 16(E), 57-58.
An empirical study
comparing gamification and social networking on e-learning. (n.d.). Science Direct.
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Blackwell, C., Lauricella, A. & Wartella, E. (2014). Factors influencing digital technology use
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Bowers, A. (2012). Do We
Know Who Will Drop Out? A Review of the Predictors of Dropping out of High
School: Precision, Sensitivity, and Specificity.. High School Journal, 96(2), 77.
C.P.S. (1993). AUTOTELIC. New
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Computer History. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change
the World. (2012, February 1). Retrieved November 1, 2014, from
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Extra Credits: Gamifying Education. (n.d.). YouTube.
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Appendices
Survey
Personal Informadion
Dear Parents:

Welcome to our School! I am so happy to have your child in my class of Spanish. It is always
exciting to start a new course and rewarding when you successfully complete it. Please feel free
to contact me with any questions or concerns throughout the school year. I am looking forward to
a rewarding year as your child successfully discovers the advantages of learning the Spanish
language.

By completing this form it will certify that you and your child have read the course resume,
syllabi online and have signed the packet digitally. This packet includes classroom expectations,
course description, late policy, materials needed, late work, make up work, consequences,
evaluation explanation, what to do to improve grades, suggestions to study another language, lab
rules, and online services in Spanish class this year.

Also be aware that it is your responsibility to provide internet connection and transportation if
your child is assigned detention before/after school.

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Feel free to sign up to our text message reminder for our class:
Spanish 3h. Send the text to 470-798-3728 with the message @sp3h
Spanish AP Send the text to 470-798-3728 with the message @breauxspa

Dear Students:

Please share the information above with your parents and complete the information about you.
Also you can go to http://tinyurl.com/oy5gyp2 to complete this form.

On behalf of the Woodstock faculty, we are thrilled to be working with your child.

Seora Breaux
* Required
Top of Form
S E C T I O N I : parents complete this part *
Example: 03/05/2013 11:30 AM
LAST NAME of the student *

FIRST NAME of the student *

25

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

This year the student is talking... *
o

Spanish 3H

Spanish AP

Guardian/Parents' name *

Parents cell/phone number *

Parents' email address *

Grade *
o

9th

10th

11th

12th

S E C T I O N I I : Students complete this part *

Last year Spanish teacher *
o

Mrs. Gogarty

26

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

o

Mrs. Carvajal

Mrs. Hinckley

Mrs. Breaux

Other:

Do you have brothers or sisters? List them with their ages here.

Do you have pets? List them.

List favorite things to do *

Do you belong to a team?Club? Which one(s)? *

What is your favorite book? *

What is your favorite Movie? *

What is your favorite food? *

27

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

What is your favorite videogame? *

What is your favorite song in Spanish? *

What is your favorite drink? *

What is your favorite TV Show? *

Some of the things that bug me are ... *

I worry about... *

School would be better if *

This is what a teacher did last year that I really liked ... *

This is what a teacher did last year that bothered or upset me ... *

I feel I have better grades when... *

28

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

29

One goal Id like to accomplish this year ... *

My favorite memory is ... *

Something you should really know about me or my background is: *

What countries have you visited? Tell me if you have lived there... *

Write down any one question you have about anything ...

Share with me your cell phone number. To answer the question via text message.
(Optional)

Have you been to a Spanish-speaking country? If so, tell me about it. Have you had
any Spanish classes before this one? Describe how they were *

Did you have contact with any Hispanic? When? How? What happened?

Tell me about your choice to take Spanish: why you chose it and what you plan to do
with it.

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

30

Have you worked?________If so where? ______

Have you heard about this class? What have other people commented to you about
this class? *

Do you have any recommendation/s for this class? *

Bottom of Form

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Appendix A
Blog

31

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

32

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Appendix B

33

EFFICACY OF GAMIFICATION IN DEVELOPING AN AUTOTELIC MENTALITY

Appendix C

34