The Development of an Educational Game in Supporting Motivation among Special Needs Learners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/GameOn.vol1.1.1.2025Keywords:
Educational game, Motivation, Special needs, ADDIE model, SDG 4: Inclusive educationAbstract
The integration of educational games in special education has gained increasing attention due to their potential to enhance learner motivation, engagement, and inclusivity. However, existing research remains limited in its focus on the development of educational games explicitly designed for special needs learners. This study aims to develop an educational game that supports the motivation of slow learners by integrating motivational theory. Based on ADDIE instructional design model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation), the educational game entitled Pico Party Adventure was developed and implemented with slow learner students in a primary School. Data were collected through teacher discussion sessions, informal interviews, and gameplay testing to examine learners’ motivational responses. The findings indicate that the developed game effectively supports learners’ motivation and engagement, while also contributing to improvements in basic learning outcomes, including reading, understanding, recognizing, and classifying everyday objects. This study highlights the potential of motivation-oriented educational games as an inclusive learning approach for slow learners and provides design insights for the development of educational games in special education contexts. Future research is recommended to explore the long-term impact of such games and to establish best practices for their integration across diverse educational settings
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Copyright (c) 2025 Laili Farhana Md Ibharim, Nur Alia Syazreen Kamarol Idzham
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