The Impacts of Mobile Games on the Academic Performance

Of Middle School Students of Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy, Inc.

A Research Paper Presented to the

In Partial Fulfillment
of the requirements for Elementary School

Alisha Cressida A. Ilagan

Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy | San Antonio, Quezon

Mobile games are the most popular entertainment in modern societies and they

target a variety of people in different ages. It provides fun and entertainment to players

and is certainly addictive among gamers to explore, play, win, lose, retry, and complete

tasks given. In this time of pandemic, the rise in mobile gaming and the absence of face-

to-face has raised worries about the effect on students’ performance.

Nowadays, mobile gaming is not only for the entertainment of the students but also

for learning. According to some research, it helps teens to exercise their mind and cause

them to explore the internet. It enables the mind of the player to be alert, active, and

strategic. However, despite these benefits, playing mobile games becomes a necessity in

their lives because it requires much of the player’s time, thereby leaving school activities

and homework unattended. Thus, mobile gaming affects the academic performance of

students positively and negatively.

In terms of their academic performance, students can relate to the lesson

based on the mobile games they played. However, when students play games

excessively, it may lead to addiction. Research by the Queensland University of

Technology has found that games can improve thinking skills in students. Games often

require students to follow instructions, consider their actions, and respond to problems.

This can help develop important thinking skills, such as: awareness of the environment.

Moreover, mobile games also contribute on the advancement of student’s

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cognition which will help solve problems, either complex or not. Mobile gaming brings

negative impacts on students’ academic performance. Despite this, it is proven that mobile

games have the potential to increase participation of students. In gameplay, they will have

to use their own problem-solving and decision-making skills, which will increase in speed

as they play learning games. Many games will have time limit to answer or solve tasks, so

the faster they go, the more they can complete.

Background of the Study

The impact of mobile gaming on children is manifested through a lack of focus on

other daily activities, lack of attention in class, and constant thinking about games. In fact,

the World Health Organization (WHO) has designed mobile game addiction as a type of

mental disorder.

During school hours, students tend to feel stressed due to loads of school

works and through playing it will relieve their stress. Students’ learning takes place

unexpectedly, but the inappropriate usage of playing mobile games also leads in some

problems such as being distracted in school. It is found that gaming can positively affect

educational outcomes. Students who spent equal time playing mobile games and studying

still achieved high grades. It can be concluded that playing mobile games has a substantial

association with the respondents’ academic success, as evidenced by their probability-

value.

In general, IGD has been linked to a poorer academic performance of students

in educational institutions. However, a study conducted by Samaha and Havi (2016)

revealed that there is no relationship between mobile games addiction risk and academic

performance.

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Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy | San Antonio, Quezon
Statement of the Problem

The study aimed to analyze the impacts of mobile games on the academic

performance of middle school students of Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy, Inc. It

specifically looked on answer in the following questions:

1. What are the different mobile games that middle school students are interested in:

a. Mobile Legends?

b. Call of Duty?

c. Genshin Impact?

2. What are the impacts of mobile games on the academic performance of middle

school students in terms of:

a. participation?

b. formative assessment?

3. What recommendation can the researcher give based on the result of the study?

Significance of the Study

The researcher’s study focused on the impacts of mobile games on the

academic performance of middle school students of Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy,

Inc. The result of this study will conceive to be of great significance to the following sectors.

To the Students. The results of the study could help the students know the

impacts of mobile games on the academic performance of middle school students of Bixby

Knolls Preparatory Academy. The student could have knowledge about their learning and

skills.

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 To the Parents. This study can help them assess further assistance they can

give to their children in terms of their needs for their online learning. This study is beneficial

to the parents since it will give them knowledge to know the impacts of mobile games on

the academic performance of their children.

To the Researcher. This study may satisfy her curiosity about the relatedness of

mobile games to their academic performance.

To the Future Researcher. This study will serve as a reference for future

researchers. The output of this study may serve as a basis for constructing activities that

will enhance students’ academic performance.

Scope and Limitation

This study mainly focuses on the impacts of mobile games on the academic

performance of middle school students of Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy. This study

is limited to 20 students from the MSUS department of Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy,

Inc. in the A.Y. 2022-2023 who will serve as the researcher’s respondents.

Definition of Terms

The researcher will find it beneficial to define the important terminologies related

to the study for easy understanding of this chapter by the readers. The following terms

were officially defined to provide a clearer understanding on how these were used in the

study.

Pandemic. It is a disease outbreak that spans several countries and affects a large

number of people.

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 Academic Performance. It is the extent to which a student, teacher, or institution

Has attained their short or long-term educational goals and is measured either by

continuous assessment or cumulative grade point average.

Mobile Games. It is an activity or sport usually involving skill, knowledge, or

chance, in which you follow fixed rules and try to win against an opponent or to solve a

puzzle.

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 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter provides the literature and studies in accordance with the impacts of

mobile games on academic performance of the student.

Research into mobile game addiction has increased over the previous two

decades. According to Kurt 2022, Kindergarten (often aged 5–6 years) to Grade 12

(typically aged 17–18 years) students tend to be less capable of self-control, and they are

unquestionably the largest fans of mobile games. They will see minor changes in their

behavior and psychological condition when they play particular games for extended

periods of time.

In addition, in the study conducted by Destyanto 2017, the fundamental problem

is that mobile games may contain unhealthy content like pornography, violence,

ignorance, and superstition which has an unintended negative impact on these K12 pupils'

ability to develop positive values and a healthy body and mind.

Moreover, it is important to note that excessive play can also cause distraction,

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and psychological disorders such as

depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety in children (Chan and Cheng, 2004; Bulduklu,

2017).

Furthermore, mobile gaming addiction is a growing concern that increases the

user's risk for physical and psychological health problems. Video game addiction is part

of the so-called Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and is often associated with Gambling

Addiction. In general, IGD has been linked to a poorer academic performance of students

in educational institutions.

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 The type of effect that mobile games may have on students always have been the

big concern of their parents, educators. One of the big concerns of parents and educators

is the positive or negative effects of educational games on educational achievement. While

some studies (Yang & Flourishing Creativity & Literacy IJELS 3(4): 36-41, 2015

37Chang, 2013) show the positive effect of computer games on the educational

achievement, the findings of other studies report the contrary results.

However, the mobile digital game is an effective tool that has good potential in

helping digital native in learning purposes (Noor Azli et al., 2019). It has been recognized

as an excellent learning tool to motivate students to participate in teaching and learning

activities actively as well as develop positive perception and attitude. It could improve

student’s knowledge, develop enjoyment in the class environment, engage students

throughout the learning process, and develop soft skills such as leadership and decision

making.

Besides, the game-based feedback utilized gaming principles by being brief so

that it would encourage self-reflection (Chu & Fowler, 2020). In addition, as argued by

other studies, such a significant increase in students’ vocabulary achievement could be

influenced by the unique characteristics of the educational game, including elements of

enjoyment and fun, challenging and the novelty of learning through a mobile digital game

(Ibrahim et al., 2017; Insorio, 2021; Siti Nazleen & Zuliana, 2017).

In fact, most of the games which are entertainment in nature, create a think in the

students mind and despite of this imagination that computer games are entertainment and

there are no mental and educational activity, it should be said that playing game, players

learn many things in a virtual environment and because of the problem-solving process in

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these games, the player’s mental activities will be increased. So, these activities will be

transferred to the real world (Hosseni, 2012).

In most of the games, children select different options, command, lead and do

subtle and deep search in their play environment (Zare & Jahanara, 2013). Therefore,

such activities have made the games as a powerful cognitive learning source and have

created different skills such as critical thinking and problem solving (Gunter, 2008).

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This study will utilize the descriptive-quantitative method in gathering data needed

since it attempted to describe the study identifying the impacts of mobile games on the

academic performance of middle school students. Descriptive approach is commonly used

to analyze and present quantitative data. Quantitative methods emphasize objective

measurements and the statistical, mathematical or numerical analysis of data collected

through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data

using computational techniques. The researcher will devise a questionnaire that will

assess the problem of the study, which involved MSUS students.

Respondents of the Study

The study will conduct at Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy, Inc. (BKPA) located

at Brgy. Loob San Antonio, Quezon. BKPA is a private school that offers different levels

of learning from Nursery to Grade 12. The chosen respondents in this study are 20

students from the MSUS department. The researcher will use a random-sampling

technique in choosing the official respondents. A random-sampling technique is a type of

probability sampling in which the researcher randomly selects a subset of participants from

a population

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Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy | San Antonio, Quezon
Research Instrument

The researcher will use adapted questionnaire as reference for the study of the

main data. The adapted survey questionnaire will be first checked and approve by the

assigned teacher, then it will undergo pre-survey procedure for validity and reliability

check. After this, the survey instrument will distribute to the respondents by the researcher

using Gmail and the respondents will answer it through survey forms. The pre-survey will

be administered to different respondents not the same as the actual ones.

Research Procedure

The researcher has come up with a topic for study and turned in the work. Then, it

will be approved by the assigned teacher. The researcher will have the adapted

questionnaire to be checked by her research advisor. After the validation, the researcher

will transfer it in a Google Form and will be distributed to the target respondents. The date

to be collected will interpret and analyze by the researcher. The researcher started

working on this study last August 2022 and will finish on June 2023.

Statistical Treatment

The following statistical treatments will be used in the interpretation and analysis

of data collected from the chosen respondents:

Percentage. According to Vocabulary.com 2019, it is a portion of a whole

expressed as a number. It will be used in this study to be informed on the percentage of

the respondents who responded on a particular online game.

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Bixby Knolls Preparatory Academy | San Antonio, Quezon
 Weighted Mean. It is defined as an average computed by giving different weights

to some of the individual values. This method is calculated by multiplying the weight

assigned to each item with the frequency of responses for each item. The weighted

average of that item will then be calculated by dividing the product by the total number of

respondents.

Likert Scale. It is a rating scale used to assess opinions, attitudes, or behaviors

and it is the most extensively used way of scaling responses in survey research. Each

section of the questionnaire will have four Likert items. This will help the researcher to

know how to scale the answers of the respondents in the questionnaire.

LIKERT SCALE
DESCRIPTION LIKERT SCALE LIKERT SCALE INTERVAL
Strongly Agree 4 3.25-4.00

Agree 3 2.50-3.25

Disagree 2 1.75-2.50

Strongly Disagree 1 1.00-1.75

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ResearchGate | Find and share research.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yuanzhe-Li-

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and_Trend_Exploration_for_Future_Educational_Mobile_Games/links/626df0f0dc014b4

37977c6cb/Psychosocial-Impacts-of-Mobile-Game-on-K12-Students-and-Trend-

Exploration-for-Future-Educational-Mobile-Games.pdf

Exploring mobile game addiction, cyberbullying, and its effects on academic

performance among tertiary students in one University in the Philippines. (n.d.).

IEEE Xplore. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8650251

Psychosocial impacts of mobile game on K12 students and trend exploration for future educational

mobile games. (n.d.).

Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.843090/full#:~:text=The%2

0Psychosocial%20Impact%20of%20Mobile%20Games&text=Often%20the%20decline%20in%20

academic,social%20skills%20is%20often%20overlooked

Cause and effect of mobile games to students - Pdfcoffee.com. (2020, December

14). pdfcoffee.com. https://pdfcoffee.com/cause-and-effect-of-mobile-games-to-

students-pdf-free.html

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The effect of computer games on students - Pdfcoffee.com. (2015, 10).

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students-pdf-free.html

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