Lecturers and Pre-service Teachers’ Perception on Usefulness of Gamified Learning Strategy for Teaching Science and Vocational Education in Oyo State Colleges of Education

This paper explores the perceived usefulness of gamified learning strategies in the context of teaching science and vocational education. Through a mixed-methods approach, the research examines how gamification impacts students' engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. The study draws on existing literature and incorporates primary data collected from Lecturers and Pre-service Teachers across Colleges of Education in Oyo State. Multi stage sampling technique was used. At stage one census sampling technique was to select Science and Vocational Education students in all the colleges of education in Oyo State and their lecturers while in stage two purposive sampling technique was used to select 200 level Science and Vocational Education students and their lecturers and at the stage three proportional sampling technique was used to select 30 percent of the population across the colleges of education in Oyo State. Participants included 200 Pre-service Teachers and 20 Lecturers implementing gamified strategies in their curricula. Three major instruments validated by research experts were used for the study namely: Rating scale, Gamification learning package and Questionnaire items on gamified instructional package. In order to collect data for the study, the researchers and 10 research assistants administered the instruments on the concerned participants. The research question was answered using descriptive statistical tools of mean and standard while two hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics of T-test and at 0.05 alpha level. Findings indicated a positive perception of gamification in enhancing educational experiences and improving knowledge retention, with implications for curriculum design. Recommendations were made amongst others that gamification teaching strategies should be made popular for teaching science and vocational education, government and stakeholders should provide enabling environment for the application of gamification in the teaching of science and vocational education.