Inclusive education through gamification: Empower: ME - I'm game! an Erasmus+ project

The Erasmus+ project Empower: ME - I'm game!, involving Italy, Germany, and Turkey, explores technology’s role in inclusive education by leveraging gamification to enhance self-esteem in students With Special Educational Needs (SEN). Increasingly employed in education (Dominguez et al., 2013), gamification fosters engagement and motivation, improving learning outcomes (Kapp, 2012). The project focuses on developing an accessible digital game integrating adaptive learning technologies, positive feedback mechanisms, and reinforcement strategies for memory and executive functions. The Italian team has implemented guidelines, ensuring adherence to accessibility principles. The game prototype will be tested in special education classrooms in Turkey and Germany through a pre-post study assessing its impact on self-esteem, utilizing selected components of the Five-Scale Test of Self-Esteem (Pope et al., 1992). The results will provide insights for refinement and offer comparative elements for inclusive classrooms in Italy.