Exploring the Factors Influencing Educators' Acceptance of Gamification for Middle School Students

While teachers generally favour gamification for its potential to boost student motivation, engagement, and learning, they express concerns over time constraints, resource demands, and risks of over-reliance on game-based mechanics. The study explores Greek educators' perspectives on integrating simple, customizable gamification tools, especially online educational games, for middle school education, based on a sample of 360 educators. The study involved a two-phase methodology where both in-service and pre-service educators watched a demo video of educational games relevant to their teaching subject, followed by a questionnaire. Using SEM, the study tested 14 hypotheses to examine the direct effects of game dynamics, game elements, game mechanics, satisfaction, and engagement on perceived learning, with engagement and satisfaction also being analysed as mediators. The findings reveal that well-integrated game dynamics influence positively perceived learning, but also that game elements are unlikely to impact learning unless closely tied to educational content. Moreover, engagement and satisfaction have crucial mediating roles.