Integrating serious games in educational settings has emerged as a promising approach to enhance learning experiences. In serious games, gesture-based interactions, such as motion sensors and wearable devices, enhance intuitiveness and engagement. The lack of standardisation in educational user engagement evaluation methods for serious games and gesture-based interaction has been highlighted in multiple studies. Most standardisation splits the dimensions, complicating the evaluation process. A systematic mapping study was conducted to address this issue, examining serious games and gesture-based interaction in education from 2018 to 2024 across five electronic databases. Despite wide interest among authors, there has been a limited systematic effort to define the concepts. This paper contributes by identifying elements used in serious games and gesture-based interaction for education, analysing research approaches and contributions, and proposing design criteria for evaluating educational prototypes based on user engagement. The study addresses differing opinions among authors and suggests solutions to unify concepts related to user engagement. The paper recommends several guidelines for serious games and gesture-based interaction in education, along with instruments to enhance user engagement.