A Systematic Review of the Use of Serious Games in Science Education - Research Summary

Oct 15, 2026

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The study conducts a systematic literature review of serious games in science education spanning 2016–2020. It compiles 39 articles indexed in Web of Science databases (SCI-Expanded, SSCI, A&HCI, ESCI). Findings emphasize experiential science as the most addressed subject area and learning/academic achievement as the most common research focus. Over half used quantitative designs; achievement tests and convenience sampling were most frequent, with primary and secondary students and sample sizes of 31–100-person groups prevalent. Descriptive analyses dominated, and computer games—especially adventure genres—were most used.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages13

Reading Time33 min

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A Systematic Review of the Use of Serious Games in Science Education Nuri Kara Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey ORCID: 0000-0002-0115-383X Received: 26 Apr 2020 Accepted: 28 Jun 2020 Abstract The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review on the use of serious games in science education between 2016 and 2020 years. A total of 39 articles were included from Science Citation IndexExpanded (SCI-Expanded), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) listed in the Web of Science database. The results showed that experiential science was the most emphasized subject area in the articles. The results also indicated that learning/academic achievement was the common examined topic in the articles. For the research designs, more than half of the articles implemented quantitative research design. Considering the data collection tools, achievement tests were the most used data collection tool. Regarding the use of sampling methods, convenience sampling was preferred in more than half of the articles. Secondary and primary school students were the most used sampling groups. The sample size of 31-100-person group was commonly chosen in the articles. Considering the data analysis methods, a majority of articles implemented descriptive analyses methods. It was also found that computer game was the most used game type. Regarding the game genres, adventure was the most preferred one in serious games. Keywords: serious games, educational games, science education, literature review INTRODUCTION The trend of the use of serious games have increased in last years. Serious games are defined as games for nonentertainment purposes in a variety of fields, such as military, education, health and business (Charsky, 2010; Susi, Johannesson, & Backlund, 2007) . Education is one of the fields that several serious game practices have been used and investigated. Serious games create an interest to researchers or people in the field of education since it integrates gaming and learning features (Girard, Ecalle, & Magnant, 2013) . Similarly,“serious games use the characteristics but in a manner that allows for the use of a broader range of instructional methods” (Charsky, 2010, p. 179) . There have been several recent studies investigating the effects or use of serious games in education. Vlachopoulos and Makri (2017) conducted a systematic literature review in higher education and found a positive effect of games and simulations on learning goals. Chang, Kao, Hwang, and Lin (2019) conducted an experimental study and found that the use of serious game yielded better learning performance scores of nursing students compared with the traditional instruction. Katsaounidou, Vrysis, Kotsakis, Dimoulas, and Veglis (2019) designed a serious game and found a positive impact on news verification. Alonso-Fernández, Martínez-Ortiz, Caballero, Freire, and Fernández-Manjón (2020) conducted a case study and indicated that serious games with the integration of game learning analytics can be used for measuring the knowledge acquisition. Almeida (2020) indicated a relationship between emotional intelligence skills and serious game performance scores of college students based on a mixed methods study. Science is a discipline of education where several serious game related studies are conducted. Serious games can provide an easy and alternative way to learners to easily experience the simulations or experiments in science (Riopel et al., 2020) . According to Cheng, Chen, Chu, and Chen (2015), researchers and educators show a big interest to the use of serious games in science education. Cheng et al. (2015) also indicated that the number of research related with the effectiveness of serious games in science education has been increased recently. However, these research studies have not provided a common or proved results especially for the potential of serious game

FAQs

What time period and sources were covered in the systematic review?

The review covers studies published between 2016 and 2020 and includes 39 articles indexed in Web of Science categories including SCI-Expanded, SSCI, A&HCI, and ESCI.

What topics and outcomes were most commonly examined?

Learning and academic achievement were the most common examined topics, and experiential science received the strongest emphasis among subject areas.

Which research designs, data collection tools, and sampling methods were most frequent?

More than half of the articles used quantitative designs. Achievement tests were the most used data collection tool, and convenience sampling was preferred in more than half of the studies.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆