Previous empirical studies on the effect of scaffolding in game-based learning environments have shown inconsistent findings. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effect of scaffolding in digital game-based learning (DGBL) and to explore a range of moderating factors that may have contributed to the inconsistencies of primary studies. We used the three-level meta-analysis method to analyze the data for handling data non-dependency issues of multiple effect sizes in one study. A total of 49 primary studies and 154 effect sizes were identified through systematic literature search. The results show that scaffolding in DGBL could effectively improve learning (g = 0.43, 95% CI: [0.30, 0.56]), and the heterogeneity among studies was significant (Q = 708.99, p < 0.001). Furthermore, our results indicate that the studies involving elementary school students and university students showed larger effect sizes of scaffolding than those involving secondary school students. Scaffolding also appeared to be differentially effective in different types of games: more effective in adventure, puzzle, and simulation games than in role-playing and strategy games. Future studies should pay attention to the design of scaffolding mechanisms in educational digital games and to the influence of scaffolding on behavioral patterns and learning processes of learners engaged in DGBL.

先前关于脚手架在基于游戏的学习环境中的影响的实证研究显示出不一致的结果。在这项研究中，我们进行了一项荟萃分析，以检验支架在基于数字游戏的学习 (DGBL) 中的作用，并探索一系列可能导致初级研究不一致的调节因素。我们在一项研究中使用三级荟萃分析方法分析数据，以处理多效应量的数据非依赖性问题。通过系统文献检索，共确定了 49 项主要研究和 154 项效应量。结果表明，DGBL中的scaffolding能有效提高学习效果（g = 0.43, 95% CI: [0.30, 0.56]），研究间异质性显着（Q = 708.99,p < 0.001)。此外，我们的研究结果表明，涉及小学生和大学生的研究显示了比涉及中学生的研究更大的脚手架效应。脚手架在不同类型的游戏中似乎也有不同的效果：在冒险、解谜和模拟游戏中比在角色扮演和策略游戏中更有效。未来的研究应关注教育数字游戏中脚手架机制的设计以及脚手架对从事 DGBL 学习者行为模式和学习过程的影响。