Kahoot!, a popular game-based e-learning tool, reflects different pedagogical orientations depending on how it is framed in practice. At its most basic, Kahoot! is didactic/mimetic, since students demonstrate learning by quickly recalling and repeating the correct answers provided by teachers, similar to rote imitation in Aristotle’s idea of mimesis or the routines of cram schools. When teachers design quizzes that connect with students’ lived experiences or invite learners to create their own questions, the platform shifts toward an authentic/synthetic pedagogy, allowing knowledge to be reorganized and contextualized in ways that resemble Bruner’s notion of synthesis or Thayer’s call to link curriculum with relevance. Finally, Kahoot! can be used in a transformative/reflexive way if followed by debrief discussions where students reflect on why they selected particular answers, confront misconceptions, and consider alternative perspectives—echoing Vygotsky’s emphasis on internalizing dialogue and Kress’s notion of agency in meaning-making. Thus, Kahoot! itself is not inherently bound to one pedagogical model; rather, its impact depends on how teachers structure the activity and guide learners toward imitation, synthesis, or reflexivity.