Emotions and gamified learning: attachment to community

Gamified learning, when infused with emotional engagement, becomes a powerful tool for fostering global citizenship and building a sense of belonging. By tapping into the emotional and social dimensions of play, gamification transforms learning into a shared, meaningful experience. It enhances motivation and memory, and also nurtures empathy, inclusion, and intercultural understanding. These are all core values of Global citizenship education: teaching individuals and communities to become globally minded. When learners play together, they connect, care, and grow together.

Emotions enhance learning outcomes

Global citizenship education is a fruitful base for gamifying learning. And Gamifying is a wonderful way to learn about global citizenship.

Gamifying – the design approach of utilising gameful design in various contexts for inducing experiences familiar from games to support different activities and behaviors (Majuri, Koivisto & Hamari 2018) – brings human emotions into play. It gives emotions one of the main roles in the play and can thus give a deeper and wider impact on learning.

Understanding Global citizenship is about aligning one’s own emotions with the commitment to communal goals for a preferable future on a global scale. When emotions are present in learning and play they create a sustainable and effective impression on the learner.

As a method, gamification enhances studiousness and fosters motivation for some. It is about points, emotions and belonging. When learners experience joy, curiosity, and achievement, their brains release dopamine, reinforcing motivation, and memory. Research shows that gamified environments significantly enhance engagement and learning outcomes when emotional triggers are integrated into design (Coelho et al. 2025).

Emotions matter because they drive attention and persistence. Positive affect, such as excitement from earning rewards or completing challenges create a sense of progress and competence. Studies confirm that emotional engagement in gamified learning, and learning in general, improves retention and fosters deeper cognitive involvement (Sanil & Sathe 2025).

Community attachment: learning as a shared experience

Gamification works best when it connects play with human interaction. Games are a dialogue (Boal 2002). They spark and fuel human connection. Social features like leaderboards, team challenges, and collaborative quests satisfy our need for relatedness. This sense of belonging transforms learning into a shared experience, increasing resilience, and motivation. Research highlights that gamification strengthens peer relationships and creates dynamic environments that promote mutual respect and inclusion (Regudon & Leal 2025).

When put into a global context gamification as a pedagogical tool works its magic. Cultural differences, language barriers and fear of the other dissipate, when people just start playing together in a shared, happy and playful space and state. Intercultural learning becomes a reality when something as fundamental as play and games are shared between diverse global citizens.

Gaming creates a shared living space for experiencing a common world. It is about learning together and building a community spirit. Gamification succeeds when it combines emotional triggers with community attachment.

Fostering positive emotions and connection in a community of equals, cultivate common understanding and motivation for globally sustainable development, like no other pedagogy. Compassion and empathy are created when we play by the same rules for a while and notice that others are just like us in play and life.

Using gamification as a pedagogical method gives the participants a chance for equal and equitable participation, dissolving the authority of the teachers and giving the learner an active role in learning, e.g. about global citizenship.

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