Forum: Look at game-based learning to nurture students’ critical thinking skills

The Forum letter

“AI-driven education solutions can reduce reliance on tuition”

(Jan 23) said that artificial intelligence-driven education solutions could help improve learning in the classroom by providing students with a personalised learning experience, and empowering educators.

AI is taking the educational landscape in Singapore by storm, but another approach that deserves some attention is game-based learning, an educational tool that combines structured gameplay with learning objectives.

At first glance, the thought of putting the worlds of games and learning together may seem unusual, compared with traditional teaching methods. However, this is where the concept of serious games comes into play.

In serious games, the main objective is to teach players a particular concept or get them to apply their existing knowledge, thereby helping to reinforce their education.

While the element of fun comes secondary to this, it certainly helps to boost engagement levels, and complements the learning process.

Singapore has already started to take steps in this direction, especially within the realm of healthcare education.

For instance, the National University of Singapore developed No Guts No Glory!, a card game to help students understand microbiology. And at a workshop at the Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference 2025, NUS medical educators taught fellow educators the elements of designing and developing their own games for learning.

These examples show that game-based learning is slowly gaining traction, but more can be done to improve its prevalence in mainstream schools and institutes of higher learning.

While AI will be a key player in transforming education in Singapore, serious games deserve a seat at the table too, as a complementary approach that can serve a wide range of learners.

As Singapore continues to explore new and innovative approaches to enhance and diversify the educational landscape, game-based learning is one such approach that should be looked into, to help nurture students’ problem-solving and critical thinking skills – skills crucial for the world of tomorrow.

Manuel Tristan Pereira, 21