Anxiety about failure in physical education. Can gamification promote changes in elementary school girls?

Abstract

This research assessed the effects of a gamified project on anxiety about failure in Physical Education, perceiving the possible causes through the impressions of the students. 143 students from 5th and 6th grade participated. A pre-experimental, pre-test, post-test single-group, quantitative-qualitative design was followed. The Anxiety and Stress subscale was administered before the Failure of the Motivation Test of Achievement for Learning in Physical Education and open questions were used after the experience (version validated by Ruiz-Pérez et al. (2015) of the Achievement Motivation in Physical Education Test, AMPET, by Nishida (1988)) and an ad hoc questionnaire with four open questions. The quantitative data showed that anxiety decreased significantly after the intervention. The qualitative results revealed positive aspects that could promote said decrease: passing tests, cooperative work, enjoyment of the elements of gamification, personal improvement, learning and improvement of curricular aspects. However, other negative aspects were also recognized, such as resistance work and stable groups, which suggests some aspects of improvement in this gamified approach.