<![CDATA[Cognitive ability is an important indicator of progress toward learning objectives. However, students’ cognitive achievement in Social Studies, particularly in narrative-based history lessons, remains relatively low. Pre-test results from class VIII-4 at SMPN 3 Malang showed that 13 of the 33 students (39.40%) had not met the Minimum Mastery Criterion (KKM). This study aimed to describe improvements in students’ cognitive abilities during the implementation of Gimkit-assisted Game-Based Learning (GBL) in Social Studies lessons on the Nusantara Spice Route. The study employed a Classroom Action Research design based on Kemmis and McTaggart’s spiral model and was conducted in two cycles involving 33 students from class VIII-4. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and tests and analyzed descriptively using pre-test and post-test scores, the class mastery rate, and normalized gain (N-Gain). The findings showed that students’ mean scores increased from 78.18 on the pre-test to 82.42 in Cycle I and 94.30 in Cycle II. N-Gain increased from 0.19 (low) in Cycle I to 0.78 (high) in Cycle II, while the class mastery rate reached 100% at the end of Cycle II. These findings indicate improvement in students’ cognitive achievement over the two intervention cycles. However, given the absence of a comparison group and the use of repeated instruction and assessment, this improvement cannot be attributed solely to Gimkit. The findings suggest that Gimkit-assisted GBL may be considered an instructional approach to support students’ cognitive development in Social Studies lessons on the Nusantara Spice Route.]]>
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