Inventory of Digital Game-Based Learning Practices for Chemistry Education: A Systematic Review

Abstract

In the field of chemistry education research, a large body of literature explores the use of game-based approaches to teach scientific concepts. However, this corpus primarily focuses on the use of educational games in classroom settings, sometimes without investigating their quality or reporting variables measured among students (Hu et al., 2022; Xu et al., 2025). Several synthesis works have offered broader overviews of the use of games in chemistry education (Byusa, Kampire and Mwesigye, 2022; Hu et al., 2022; da Silva et al., 2025; Xu et al., 2025; Elmali, Freund and Tiemann, 2026). However, as those papers used a general perspective on games in chemistry education, more specific game types, media types or chemistry learning concepts have not been investigated. Inconsistencies in methodology are highlighted, such as confusion between game-based learning and gamification approaches (Becker, 2021; da Silva et al., 2025; Elmali, Freund and Tiemann, 2026), leading to inclusion of gamification studies in game-based learning focused papers. In addition, methodological frameworks for systematic reviews, such as the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), are only described in three of those works. This led to the hypothesis that this field of research could benefit from a more clearly defined categorisation of game-based approaches (Elmali, Freund and Tiemann, 2026) and from the study of the mechanisms behind learning with games (Hu et al., 2022). Therefore, a systematic review (with or without meta-analysis) focusing on digital game-based learning is considered. Using the PRISMA framework, we explored three databases (ERIC, SCOPUS, and EBSCO) and two journals (JCE and CERP). A total of 2242 records were retrieved for initial screening. Articles were retained if they explicitly mentioned a game approach and chemistry education in their title or abstract. As this is the current stage of this research, eligibility and data analysis will take place in the future.