Effects of different embodied scaffoldings on students' spatial abilities in digital game-based learning

Abstract

Adding embodied scaffolding to the teaching process can be effective in improving students' spatial abilities. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the effects of different embodied scaffoldings on students' spatial abilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different embodied scaffoldings on students' spatial learning. Three types of embodied scaffoldings were designed: controllable animation scaffolding (CA), instructional gesture plus animation scaffolding (GA), and physical object scaffolding (PO). Based on this, we conducted a quasi-experimental study in which 197 elementary school students were randomly divided into three groups to learn geometry in a game-based learning context and measured their knowledge learning, spatial ability, and flow experience. The results showed that although there were no significant differences in spatial ability among the three groups, students in the PO group performed significantly better in knowledge transfer than the other two groups, while students in the PO group also had the lowest level of flow experience. In addition, we investigated the influence of students' prior proficiency on the effects of different embodied scaffoldings. The results showed that students in the low proficiency group performed better in the PO condition and the CA condition than those in the high proficiency group.