Over the past 25 years, interactive video and computer games have been increasing as a form of entertainment especially among young people. The youth of today are growing up with technology surrounding them and that changes the way they want to learn. Today’s learners, “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) or the “games generations”, do not like school “not because it is hard but because it is utterly boring” (Papert, cited in Prensky, 2001). According to Prensky (2008), computer games provide a new way to motivate learners. In order to keep up with ever-changing information and communication technologies and to prosper within dynamic social, cultural and economic environments of the 21^st century, learners need to develop and/ or enhance skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, digital literacy, problem solving, collaboration and cooperation.

The Internet offers access to a wide variety of games that attract many gamers. According to Adams (2013), online (Internet) games “refer to multiplayer distributed games in which the players’ machines are connected by a network” (p.471). This new generation of online games provides rich multimedia environments that allow thousands of participants to game in real time. In terms of education, game-based learning offers an innovative approach (Tang et al., 2009), that allows us to re-conceptualise learning support, teaching enhancement, assessment and evaluation. More recently, new applications harnessing game-based features known as “gamification” have been integrated into many different fields. Gabe Zichermann has described gamification “as the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems” (Zichermann, 2010). Game mechanics include: Leaderboards, Certificates and other rewards mechanisms, Competition, etc. According to Burke (2014), gamification focuses on developing skills, changing behaviour and driving innovation.

Conceptually, gamification within education contexts has been described by Kapp (2012) as: “using game-based mechanics, aesthetics, and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning, and solve problems” (p.10). This research study thus set-out to explore how engagement in online gamified/ game-based mathematics learning activities impacts on the dispositions, cognitive abilities, and/ or behaviours of primary pupils. Dispositions were understood as learners’ attitudes or feelings towards engagement within the disciplinary area (in this case, mathematics). Abilities were understood as development of learners’ cognitive abilities within the disciplinary area. Behaviours were understood as the nature, types and degree of engagement in the disciplinary area within and beyond the classroom. 

The study took-place with pupils (aged 6-9) at three different grade levels, within an International primary school in Saudi Arabia from September 2015 to January 2016, and utilized Mathletics, an online gamified learning environment for mathematics, as the game-based learning platform-of-choice.  Participants engaged in whole-class sessions using Mathletics software, while being observed by the researcher. At an individual level, in the case of 6 participants, an eye-tracking sensor device was used to pinpoint on-screen the areas of interest/ focus of attention of learners.  This provided information on cognitive factors such as: presence, attention, and focus of learners. The following research questions were explored:

• What are pupils’ dispositions towards using online gamified learning activities?
• What motivates pupils to engage within online gamified learning environments?
• What influences pupils’ interaction and progression to more academically challenging levels within online gamified learning activities?

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