Gamification Workflow for Growth Mindset Processes

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Gamification Workflow for Growth Mindset
Processes
Wilawan Inchamnan, DIT
College of Creative Design & Entertainment Technology
Dhurakij Pundit University
Laksi, Bangkok, Thailand
wilawan.inn@dpu.ac.th
Jiraporn Chomsuan, DBA
Colledge of Innovation Business and ccountancy
Dhurakij Pundit University
Laksi, Bangkok, Thailand
Jiraporn.chn@dpu.ac.th
Abstract— This study aims to examine the growth mindset,
which is a matter of concern in the education system. A growth
mindset is a type of intelligence that can be enhanced through
hard work and a good strategy. The behavior can be changed by
education and motivation. A growth mindset can be engendered
by using motivation and gamification concepts. This research
aims to augment and improve the mindset of interactive systems
with gamification. Gamification workflow focuses on the
evaluation process. The findings show the processes that can be
influenced by gamification activities. The growth mindset is
measured by the learner’s persistence through positive
feedback, level, motivation, leaderboard, and their competency.
These results can be used in gamification activity design where
a growth mindset can be engendered through motivation and
performance. This is a working research to apply the
gamification workflow, which encourages students to increase
learning engagement with advanced technology.
Keywords—Gamification, Growth Mindset, Game mechanics,
Gamification workflow, Persistence
I. INTRODUCTION
This study aims to review gamification design
and how to influence the growth mindset in terms
of processing. The research examines conceptual
gamification design in which factors related to
gamification encourage people to learn.
This research focuses on the motivation
strategies in gamification and game-based learning
to influence the growth mindset. New technology
may help people to learn how to adapt their lives
and be motivated to learn new things as technology
can change their lifestyle and behavior. A growth
mindset is a form of intelligence that can be
enhanced through hard work and a good strategy.
Education can involve as many types of intelligence
as possible through the student accomplishment
activities [23]. The growth mindset can be taught by
using motivation and gamification concepts.
Nowadays, on a micro level, students believe they
can get smarter and that effort makes them stronger.
Therefore, they put in extra time and effort to
acquire fulfillment. However, on a macro level,
Thailand has issues with motivation in the
educational system, and there is lack of methods to
evaluate growth mindset design in Thailand. These
issues are matters of concern and need to be
resolved to encourage Thai students to adopt a
growth mindset.
This research aims to determine the gamification
workflow which encourages people to conduct their
lives using advanced technology and to engender a
growth mindset. Changing views on learning, from
limitations and scarcity to abundance and a growth
mindset in the educational system means taking
small steps in the right direction.
II. Background
A. Growth Mindset
The term ‘mindset’ refers to implicit beliefs that
individuals hold about basic human qualities that
have been shown to influence people’s thinking and
practices [33]. A student’s mindset has been found
to influence their motivation and school
achievements [1][29]. Having a growth mindset
means that a student can enhance their talents and
abilities as a result of effort. A growth mindset is a
type of intelligence that can be enhanced through
hard work and a good strategy [28]. The growth
mindset can be engendered [25] by using
motivation and performance [28].
A growth mindset is a soft skill that continues to
be important [4]. For instance, athletes are driven to
achieve success and can realize their potential
through effort, practice, and instruction. In the
educational field, research has shown that students
with a growth mindset can strongly enhance their
success and achievements [ 1 0 ] . A growth
mindset helps people to enhance their over time,
and mindset research examines the power of such
beliefs in influencing human behavior [14].
B. Growth Mindset Criteria
People with a growth mindset highlight learning
goals such as becoming smarter, improving
abilities, making an effort and understanding
failures in learning [33]. The underlying
mechanism for students to have their own agency in
finding out new knowledge is intrinsic motivation.

A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can
be nurtured through learning and effort, while
intrinsic motivation is the volition to engage in a
task for inherent satisfaction [26].
The most frequently attached meanings of
growth mindset criteria are as follows [6]:
• Development: Incremental and continuous
improvement, self-development, learning, helping
others grow, and growing beyond one’s current
status.
• Empowerment: Mutual accountability, taking
responsibility, taking charge, and being fearless in
times of change.
• Openness: Embracing the new, being open
to new challenges and industries, being curious,
“dreaming big,” and challenging the status quo.
This research will address the processes that
encourage development, empowerment, and
openness through game mechanics.
C. Gamification
The gamification concepts plays a crucial role in
changing people’s mindsets, behavior and culture to
achieve a sustainable outcome. Research has shown
that a growth mindset encourages a healthier
attitude toward practice and learning, a hunger for
feedback, a greater ability to deal with setbacks, and
significantly better performance over time [7].
Gamification is defined as the use of game
elements and mechanics in non-game contexts [16].
Gamification may also be applied in other contexts
such as learning and educational activities [9]. The
common techniques are rewards, leaderboards,
likes and dislikes, transparency and measurement
[35]. A rewards behavior system in gamification
can encourage people to have a growth mindset
[28]. The gamification concept is used as an
instructional tool to yield better behavioral
outcomes.
The gamification can create a powerful
experience, leveraging both motivation and
engagement. The recent trend toward “gamifying”
applications is based well-designed and balanced
games and includes simplest components, such as
badges, levels, points, and leader-boards [23] to
offer both a technical toolset and a set of best
practices to implement successful gamified
experiences in educational contexts [22].
Gamification can be applied to enhance motivation
through intrinsic rewards and feedback. The
activities concept might require the implementation
of gamification, which suggests a user-centered
design.
D. Gamification Workflow
The challenge is in offering a reward system
when people put serious work into skills
development [10] as they progress during play [28].
The gamification workflow includes activity steps
[19]. The first step is objective communication to
students through goal setting. Second, gamification
activities in the classroom are designed to be easy
to use with portable devices. Motivation will be
driven by intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
Consequently, the learning outcomes. can be
measured.
E. Growth Mindset Measurement
The growth mindset could be measured by
capturing a player’s persistence. Persistence refers
to the amount of time spent and the number of levels
they play [28]. Persistence and drawing on past
knowledge are the most important habits that
should be encouraged [4]. Assessments can be
made through a player’s performance when
completing complex tasks over a long period of
time [28]. Gamification includes a reward system
that encourages desirable behavior, which is part of
a growth mindset. Effort is the crucial component
of growth mindset practice by understanding
mistakes and confronting deficiencies [10]. Having
a growth mindset means that students seek and
enjoy challenges and remain highly motivated even
after prolonged difficulty. [Claxton].
F. Good Strategy Behavior/Positive Reinforcement
Reinforcement refers to “a stimulus which
follows and is contingent upon a behavior and
increases the probability of a behavior being
repeated [36]. Positive reinforcement was
developed by Skinner. Simply put, positive
reinforcement is where something pleasant is
‘added’ when a specific action is performed [3].
In the context of teaching and education,
positive reinforcement means providing incentives
for students to repeat desired behaviors.
Reinforcement can be divided into two forms of
motivation, which are intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. Intrinsic motivation is "the desire to
engage in behaviors for no reason other than sheer
enjoyment, challenge, pleasure, or interest [21]
while extrinsic motivation occurs when we are
motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an
activity to earn an external reward [34].

II. GROWTH MINDSET PROCESSES
A growth mindset includes cognitively-active
processes in relation to a specific task which can
influence individual and/or organizational
outcomes [ 1 4 ] . A growth mindset involves the
malleability of intelligence and/or personal
characteristics [33]. Having a growth mindset can
influence people’s behavior. The game’s
mechanics can influence people’s competency and
impact their belief.s.
It is necessary to determine how gamification
can stimulate the growth of mindset processes. The
hook model is based on its ability to “hook” people
into using a method regularly to form a habit [1 2] ,
.The weakness of this model is that it overlooks
some critical aspects that contribute to the
likelihood of triggers being effective during
activities. The process can be divided into the
following four aspects [12]:
• Trigger: Weekly notification of “this week’s
reading list” on the first screen shown in the
app.
• Action: Tick off each source the student has
used.
• Variable Reward: Color change in the
completion bar and positive message
displayed.
• Investment: Visual progress towards
completion.
Hook technology can be used to help to
alleviate difficulties by providing a means to
influence the behaviors of individuals. The game
mechanics can be designed to include a reward
system, which awards points to players for
sportsmanlike conduct that is worthy of
recognition [11].
Individuals with a growth mindset find
persistence is useful because they believe their
abilities can change through hard work [15 ] . This
study hypothesizes that game activities act as a
trigger to encourage such beliefs. An aim of this
study is to determine how people’s performance
can be enhanced by having a growth mindset,
which encourages more effort and persistence
while studying.Performance can be influenced by
activity engagement. An engagement is an
arrangement that is made to do something at a
particular time. In terms of education, engagement
may be considered as the ‘behavioral intensity and
emotional quality of a person’s active involvement
during a task’ [31]. Bouvier et al. (2014) stated that
engagement depends on users ‘characteristics such
as motives, expectations, abilities, and skills and on
the form, content, and context of the activity [2].
The ‘Flow State’ is the mental state of engagement
in a game activity [5] in which the user becomes
intrinsically motivated and immersed in the
activity.
The gamification mechanics are goal setting,
activity rules, time, competition or cooperation
condition, rewards, and feedback. The mechanics
can encourage motivation through activity
engagement [17]. The concept of engagement is
based on idea that intelligence is flexible and is
something that can grow.
III. EXPERIMENT DESIGN
The experiment design is an assessment method
involving the collection of significant behavioral
data. The design is based on the relationship
between mindset and academic achievement.
A. Mixed Methods
Mixed methods are employed in this research
and involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting
quantitative and qualitative data. The observation
technique will be used to track and access
participant behavior. The quantitative data is the
Grade Point Average (GPA) which represents
learning competency. Assessing learning
competency is a key approach to yield greater
accountability and quality assurance in the
classroom [27].
This research aims to determine the relationship
between student competency and learning
outcomes including persistence and leaderboard
position during class activities. The thirty-five
participants were fourth-year students at the
Creative Design & Entertainment Technology
College at Dhurakij Pundit University.
B. Persistence
Persistence can play an important role in
learning through game challenges, which act as
stimuli to motivate learners.and can affect
subsequent effort [8]. Gamified learning has been
found to engage students and enhance learning [8].
Student persistence is related to academic success.
Persistence is a learning strategy that derives from
motivation [37].
C. Leaderboard
A leaderboard is a large board displaying the
ranking of the leaders in a competitive event and is

one of the most-used game elements. The purpose
of a leaderboard is to show people where they are
ranked in a gamified system. Leaderboards can be
employed in a multitude of different ways that aim
to increase motivation and goal setting [30].
Having a leaderboard can lead to a higher level of
production for students who are motivated by it
[12]. However, Zichermann and Lindner
(2013)found that while leaderboards are
motivating to some, they can be demotivating to
others [39].
D. Competency
Games can be used as a training tool for many
kinds of learning goals that develop competencies
[38]. Game mechanics can trigger and reinforce the
competencies of situational awareness such as
workload management, and the application of
procedures [20]. A game can provide information
about the player’s performance such as response
times, correct answers, and the procedures followed
during play. The game data are connected to
behavior which indicate crucial competencies [20].
Data on growth mindset processes are obtained
through the collection of player data. The learning
outcome is the student’s GPA. The student can
enhance competency through practice. The
motivation for learning is measured through
questionnaire questions about their achievements
and sense of pride, including enhanced respect from
others.
IV. GAMIFICATION WORKFLOW FOR GROWTH
MINDSETS
The findings support the hypothesis that
having a growth mindset can drive player
performance because the processes are designed by
using project-based outcomes. These outcomes are
measure through a final project for senior
Interactive Design and Game Development
students.
Figure 2: The Gamification conceptual workflow
The assessment method is designed to
determine the stimulus factors such as practice,
pride, acceptance and positive feedback when they
study in the program for 4 years. This conceptual
framework reflects how a growth mindset is
actualized in the learning practices. Students can be
encouraged to adopt a growth mindset through
positive feedback.
The framework in figure 2 presents the
relationships between the growth mindset and
other factors. Table 1 shows the learner practices
and growth mindset pedagogy [32] and how
pedagogy affects the growth mindset. Learning
practices can be divided into two parts: the
individual student and the whole class.
The individual student can be driven by
their persistence, thinking process, motivation and
expectations. The whole class can be encouraged
by using group activities.
Table 1: Learner practices and their actualization in
growth mindset pedagogy [32]
Teaching
practices
Actualization of
growth mindset
pedagogy
Key
pedagogical
factors
affecting the
growth
mindset
The
individual
student
Knowing a
student ́s strengths
and weaknesses
and taking into
consideration a
student ́s
individual needs
Supporting
student ́s
individual
learning
processes
Critical feedback
Persistence
No focus on actual
mistakes but on
the fact that a
student recognized
the mistake
Fostering
students ́
process-
focused
thinking
High expectations
and persistence
Promoting
mastery
orientation
The
whole
class
Give praise
immediately and
clearly
Fostering
students ́
process-
focused
thinking
High expectations
Growth
Mindset
Positive
Feedback
Motivation
Cognition
Pride
Acceptance
Practice
Stimuli
Stimuli
Stimuli
Stimuli
Stimuli

V. RESULTS
This study employed a nonparametric
correlation coefficient (Spearman's correlation)
which is used to measure the strength of the
relationship between two variables. The correlation
between two variables is particularly helpful when
investing learning processes. For example, a
correlation can be helpful in determining how well
a student performs (GPA) when compared to their
attitude or motivation.
The results (Fig 3) show the relationship
between the leaning outcome (GPA) and the
learners’ processing and attitude. The significance
of the learning outcome measures was found to be
positive. implying that the more people practice
when learning (0.460), the greater the likelihood is
that an individual will acquire skills (0.598).
Figure 3: Results
There is a statistically significant association
between pride resulting from success and social
acceptance (0.521). There is a significant
association between pride and the curiosity for
learning (0.666). Learners practice more when they
are motivated and feel proud
VI. DISCUSSION
Gamification workflow for growth mindset
processes can be influenced by gamified activities.
The growth mindset is measured by the learner’s
persistence through positive feedback, level,
motivation, leaderboard and their competency. The
results suggest that gamification can help to
motivate students and enhance performance.
This figure 4 illustrates the relationship between
the learning and growth mindset processes [18].
The level achieved in the game reflects the
learners’ motivation, engagement and ability. The
leaderboard can affect the learner’s sense of pride
and the competencies acquired while learning can
lead to enhanced social acceptance. In addition,
positive feedback can also influence a learner’s
mindset and may affect the learning outcome
(GPA). This conceptual workflow will help
researchers to design activities that can improve the
gamification concept
Practice
Pride
Curiosity
For
Learning
Social
Acceptances

Figure 4: The Gamification conceptual workflow for learning processes
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