Teachers in primary and secondary education face challenges in engaging and motivating students in the learning process, especially in the digital age. To this end, many traditional teaching methods often fail to resonate with students who are accustomed to technology and interactive forms of entertainment. As a result, teachers struggle to make learning interesting and engaging, which can lead to detachment, amotivation and poor academic performance. The Most Value Play Erasmus+ project aims to bridge this gap by providing teachers with the tools, knowledge and competences to create their own customized gamification activities. As a first step in this direction, a needs assessment among teachers was conducted to identify areas where they require support to effectively implement gamification activities. In this study, fifty-one (n=51) in-service teachers from Greece in primary and secondary (K-12) education completed a fourteen-item questionnaire. The results provide valuable insights into the pedagogical, technical and administrative challenges faced by the teachers and can be utilised to inform the development of tailored support strategies as well as a series of actions to help them upskill in order to adopt and apply gamification techniques in their teaching and learning practices. In order to achieve this goal, a flexible learning tool accompanied by a repository of game-based learning tools/applications has been developed. Moreover, accompanying training materials and experiential workshops will be organized to ensure that teachers and school leaders have the necessary skills and knowledge to enhance teaching and learning through gamification.

Keywords: Gamification, game-based learning, teaching, primary education, secondary education, teacher needs assessment.