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Kavya Rao
Independent Researcher
Karnataka, India
Abstract
Gamification in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) harnesses game-design elements—such as points, badges, narrative quests, and peer challenges—to foster students’ emotional awareness, self-management, social skills, and particularly empathy. This manuscript investigates the impact of a structured, six-week gamified SEL intervention on middle-school students’ empathy levels, drawing on self-determination theory and established empathy development frameworks. A quasi-experimental design with 120 participants (60 in the gamified SEL group, 60 in a control group receiving traditional SEL lessons) measured changes in Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern via the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) before and after the intervention. Not only did the gamified group demonstrate statistically significant increases in both empathy subscales—with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d > 0.8)—but they also reported heightened engagement, sustained motivation, and deeper peer connections. Qualitative reflections further revealed emergent themes of enhanced perspective awareness, intrinsic motivation through playful challenges, and stronger collaborative bonds. Importantly, the intervention’s use of real-world community projects and peer-feedback loops translated classroom learning into tangible prosocial behaviors, suggesting that gamified SEL can bridge the gap between theory and practice. These findings underscore gamification’s potential to transform SEL from a passive, discussion-based activity into an active, student-centered experience. By integrating autonomy-supportive elements, competence-building tasks, and relatedness-driven collaborations, educators can cultivate a lasting culture of empathy and mutual respect. The study concludes with practical guidelines for curriculum designers, recommendations for teacher training on game-based pedagogy, and avenues for future research—such as digital platform comparisons and long-term follow-up studies—to further validate and refine gamified SEL approaches.
Keywords
Gamification, social emotional learning, empathy development, middle school, educational intervention
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