Gamification and the Development of Metacognitive Processes: A Systematic Literature Review

Background Gamification has encouraged growing interest in educational research because of its potential to improve motivation, participation, and self-regulated learning. However, although gamification has been widely studied in education, the specific relationship between gamification and metacognitive processes remains conceptually fragmented and inconsistently operationalized across empirical studies. This systematic literature review examines how gamification-based strategies support metacognitive processes, such as planning, monitoring, and evaluation, in educational contexts (García-López et al., 2023; Gkintoni et al., 2024). Methods This review was conducted using the PRISMA 2020 methodology (Page et al., 2021). Searches were conducted in Scopus and the Web of Science using the terms gamification, education, and metacognition. Only peer-reviewed, open-access articles published between 2019 and 2024 were included. After removing duplicates (n = 115), 253 records were examined by title and abstract screening, 181 were excluded because of irrelevance and 72 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility; one article was excluded at this stage due to confirmed plagiarism. Finally, 71 studies were included in the final thematic synthesis. A thematic analysis was used to extract information on theoretical frameworks, methodologies, metacognitive components, and higher-order cognitive processes. Results The findings revealed that gamification was frequently associated with metacognition by activating processes, such as self-regulation, monitoring, and decision-making. The central elements of gamification, such as immediate feedback, progressive challenges, autonomy, and reward systems, were commonly reported alongside outcomes related to metacognitive awareness and active participation. However, many studies did not explicitly specify the instructional mechanism or the metacognitive scaffolding used, which limits the precision of attributing metacognitive effects directly to gamification. The review studies also reported higher-order thinking outcomes (e.g., problem-solving and critical thinking) particularly when gamified activities incorporated cognitive challenges and structured feedback (Ask et al., 2023). Future research should expand the scope of these databases and include non-open-access studies to reduce potential biases. Conclusions Gamification strengthens metacognitive processes when instructional design integrates meaningful goals, feedback mechanisms, cognitive challenges, and reflection opportunities. Evidence suggests that educational environments based on gamification are effective in promoting the planning, monitoring, and evaluation skills essential for autonomous learning and metacognitive development. Future research should expand the scope of these databases and include non-open-access studies to reduce potential biases.