Students in the acupuncture programme are required to be familiar with acupoints to be competent in clinical practice. From my experience in previous years of teaching, students indicated difficulties in memorising acupuncture content knowledge. Furthermore, they highlighted the challenges in critical thinking, particularly in quick and stressful environments. Guided by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) model, I adopted game-based learning in these modules Curriculum transformation plays a crucial role in higher education globally. This is of particular significance in South Africa in the post-apartheid era, ensuring a democratic society based on the values of human dignity, equality, human rights and freedom (Mendy & Madiope, 2020). The author recognises the value of game-based learning in health sciences education. This view is supported by the literature which reveals the significance of game-based learning in promoting learning outcomes in the global north (Hashim et al., 2019). To accommodate 21st-century students’ learning, the author embraces game-based learning in the acupuncture programme at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Acupuncture, as one of the modalities of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is performed by inserting needles into specific points of the body, namely acupoints, to treat diseases (Magram & Deng, 2019). In 2020, the UJ started offering an acupuncture programme as an integrated part of the Bachelor of Health Science in Complementary Medicine programme (UJ, 2021). Students in the acupuncture programme are required to be familiar with acupoints to be competent in clinical practice. From my experience in previous years of teaching, students indicated difficulties in memorising acupuncture content knowledge. Furthermore, they highlighted the challenges in critical thinking, particularly in quick and stressful environments. Guided by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) model (see Figure 1), I adopted game-based learning in these modules (Hu, 2022; Hu, 2024a). This initial idea was developed from collaborations with international universities in China during my visit in 2023 where patients were playing digital games in hospitals for rehabilitation. The decision is supported by Akour et al. (2020), and Yaccob et al. (2022), who reveals that gamebased learning has received increased attention in health sciences education due to its effectiveness in achieving learning outcomes. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2024 43 Testing each other and engaging with various aspects of acupuncture in Chinese medicine through this method (game-based learning )felt highly beneficial for our learning.
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