Missions with Monty: A Game-Based Learning Environment to Promote Comprehension Monitoring and Science Achievement

This study evaluates Missions with Monty, a game-based learning environment (GBLE) designed to teach fifth-grade students science content aligned with Next Generation Science Standards while building comprehension monitoring, a core self-regulated learning skill. The researchers compared 144 students who played the game against 80 students who studied identical content through a static Google Forms comparison condition with no gamified features. Participants were drawn from four North Carolina schools with diverse demographics, and intact classrooms were randomly assigned to condition over roughly four weeks of regular instruction.

Science knowledge, measured by an 18-item multiple-choice test administered before and after the intervention, rose significantly across both conditions, with students in the game condition showing a significant gain (t(143) = -13.21, p < .001). Metacognitive monitoring was assessed through bias, the tendency toward overconfidence, and accuracy, the calibration of confidence ratings to actual performance. Students in the game condition became significantly less overconfident and more accurate in their judgments, and when both conditions were analyzed together, both monitoring gains remained significant.

However, the univariate analyses comparing conditions after controlling for pre-test monitoring scores found no significant differences in either bias or accuracy between the game and comparison groups, so the study does not show that the game produced greater monitoring gains than the non-game format. The authors frame their results as evidence that GBLEs can support science learning and self-regulation efficiently, noting that such monitoring improvements typically require weeks of distributed practice in traditional classrooms. They call for future work examining motivation, feedback models, and integration of GBLEs into everyday instruction.