Can gamified learning really affect learning outcomes in K-12 stage?

Gamified learning (GL) plays a crucial role in enhancing both the efficiency and engagement of K-12 students’ learning experiences. However, there are few studies to explore whether the GL specially designed for the curriculum will affect the cultivation of students’ ability. An extensive search of publications from 2013 to 2023 was conducted across three databases: Web of Science, ERIC, and Scopus. Citations and extracted data from the articles were independently assessed. Experimental or quasi-experimental studies specifically investigating the impact of GL on K-12 students’ learning outcomes were considered eligible according to the inclusion criteria. This study aims to explore which type of GL had a more significant impact on K-12 students’ holistic abilities, including cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, when compared between specialized GL designed for the study’s curriculum and directly using pre-existing GL models. Results revealed that GL had upper-medium effects on K-12 students’ Learning outcomes (ES = 0.701, p < .001), and specialized GL designed for the study’s curriculum showed superior effectiveness and had a more significant positive influence (ES = 0.821, p < .001). Furthermore, moderator analyses showed that experimental cycle, levels of schooling and disciplines moderated the effects of GL. In conclusion, we propose that GL in K-12 needs to be tailored to different levels of schooling and disciplines, with appropriate experimental cycle to promote and stimulate learning efficiency of K-12 education. However, future research should expand data sources, incorporate more diverse moderator variables, and include multilingual literature to enhance the comprehensiveness and generalizability of the findings.