Children have always learnt through play. They experiment, make decisions, solve problems and learn from what happens next.
Game-based learning (GBL) takes these characteristics of play and deliberately uses them to support learning.
Put simply, the game itself becomes part of the learning experience. Learners aren’t simply rewarded for completing an educational task; they need to use knowledge, skills and problem-solving to play and progress.
And despite the name, game-based learning doesn’t necessarily mean video games. Board games, card games, role play and physical games can all be used for learning. Digital games simply open up additional possibilities – from interactive worlds and experiences to immediate feedback and personalised progression.
Game-based learning isn't the same as gamification
The two terms are often confused.
Gamification adds game-like elements – such as points, badges, rewards or leaderboards — to an activity that isn’t itself a game.
Game-based learning goes further. The learning becomes part of the game itself.
A player might need to calculate a trajectory to navigate a spacecraft, understand adaptation to investigate why a species has survived, or interpret evidence to solve a mystery.
The knowledge has a purpose within the experience.
Why can games be powerful environments for learning?
Think about what a well-designed game naturally asks a player to do:
Pay attention. Make decisions. Solve problems. Remember information. Apply knowledge. Respond to feedback. Try again.
These are also behaviours that support learning.
Games can shift learners from simply receiving information to actively doing something with it. They can make a prediction, test it, see what happens and change their approach.
Feedback is often immediate. Make a decision and something happens. Take the wrong approach and you reconsider it. Solve the problem and you progress.
This creates a natural cycle:
Try → receive feedback → adapt → try again.
Games can also create a different relationship with getting things wrong. Players expect to experiment. A mistake isn’t necessarily the end of the process; it’s information that can help them work out what to do next.
Giving knowledge a purpose
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of game-based learning is its ability to answer a question familiar to teachers and parents:
“Why do I need to know this?”
Within a game, the answer might be: because you need that knowledge to solve the problem in front of you.
This can be particularly powerful when combined with storytelling. A story gives the learning context, while the game allows the learner to participate in it.
Instead of learning something because it might appear in a test later, there is a reason to understand it now.
What does good game-based learning look like?
Simply putting educational content into a game doesn’t automatically make it effective.
At its best, the learning and the gameplay work together. Challenge, choice, feedback, experimentation, progression, problem-solving and storytelling give learners reasons to engage with the subject itself.
Game-based learning isn’t about replacing teachers, books, experiments or classroom discussion.
It’s another way for children to explore, practise and apply knowledge – and, importantly, become curious enough to want to learn more.