Instrument Validity And The Association Between Gamified Tahfiz Learning And Memorisation Motivation: A Correlational Study At RTQ Al-Hafiz Kuala Samboja

Abstract

The rapid growth of Quranic non-formal education in Indonesia has increased the need for pedagogical innovations that sustain children's memorisation motivation. Gamification has been widely promoted as such an innovation, yet empirical evidence on its effects remains mixed, and studies on Quranic learning have focused almost exclusively on application development. This study evaluates the psychometric quality of a gamification instrument and a memorisation motivation instrument, and tests the association between the two constructs among santri at Rumah Tahfiz Al-Qur'an (RTQ) Al-Hafiz Kuala Samboja. An ex-post facto correlational design was employed with total sampling of 22 active santri; 20 respondents completed the questionnaire. Item validity was assessed through item-total correlation (r table = 0.444, df = 18, α = 0.05), reliability through Cronbach's alpha, residual normality through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and the association through Pearson correlation and simple linear regression, complemented by a post-hoc power analysis. The memorisation motivation instrument was valid (9 of 10 items) and reliable (α = 0.844), whereas the gamification instrument retained only 3 of 10 valid items with low reliability (α = 0.394), indicating inadequate construct measurement. The correlation was very small and non-significant (r = 0.135, p = 0.570, 95% CI [−0.33, 0.55]; R² = 0.018), and post-hoc power was only 0.089, far below the conventional 0.80 threshold. The finding is therefore inconclusive rather than evidence of absence. The study contributes transparent psychometric evidence and a power-calibrated null result, and recommends instrument validation and adequately powered designs before gamification effectiveness in tahfiz learning is claimed.