Augmented Reality-Enriched Gamification for Teaching Astronomy: Effects on Middle School Students’ Motivation and Science Achievement

Abstract

Advances in technology and space research have increased the need to improve students’ motivation and understanding in astronomy education. Gamification, particularly when integrated with emerging technologies, has drawn growing interest as a way to improve learning. This study aimed to examine the effects of Augmented Reality (AR)-enriched gamification and gamification alone on seventh-grade students’ academic achievement and motivation toward learning science within the “Solar System and Beyond” unit. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design was employed. The study involved 51 seventh-grade students from a middle school in Ankara. AR-enriched gamification was implemented in Experimental Group 1 (n = 20), gamification in Experimental Group 2 (n = 16), and textbook-based instruction in the control group (n = 15). Data were collected using the Astronomy Achievement Test and the Science Learning Motivation Scale. The findings revealed that although all groups showed statistically significant improvements in academic achievement from pre-test to post-test, no statistically significant between-group differences were observed in post-test achievement scores. With respect to motivation, statistically significant between-group differences emerged in Motivation for Performance and on the overall Science Learning Motivation Scale, in favor of the AR-enriched gamification group over the control group. Within-group analyses further indicated that Experimental Group 1 showed significant improvements across all motivation subdimensions, whereas Experimental Group 2 showed improvements in selected subdimensions only, and no significant changes were observed in the control group. These results suggest that while gamification-based approaches may support academic achievement, integrating AR into gamified instruction may provide additional motivational benefits. Overall, the findings indicate that AR-enriched gamification can be an effective teaching approach for improving affective learning outcomes in science education.