Effects of gamified classroom management on the divergent thinking and creative tendency of elementary students

Gamification improves students’ learning motivation and enhances their performance in nongaming situations, such as in a classroom. In addition, their academic performance is closely related to their creativity. However, to the best of our knowledge, few empirical studies confirm whether gamified classroom management improves students’ creativity. The present study models a role-playing gamified classroom management program, the Class of Oz, which allows students to play different roles and complete various tasks. Two groups of elementary students participated in the experiment: 44 elementary students who received gamified classroom management and the other 42 elementary students who received traditional classroom management. We examined the differences between the experimental and control groups regarding their divergent thinking and creative tendency. The results show that role-playing in gamified classroom management enhances students’ verbal divergent thinking and creative tendency in classroom activities and that its influences on different dimensions of divergent thinking and creative tendency vary. These findings reveal that gamified classroom management is effective in enhancing students’ creativity and serves as creativity training for elementary students. Thus, the present study provides a practical reference for practical teachers.