The impact of serious games in mathematics fluency: A study in Primary Education

In recent years there has been a renewal of educational software encouraged by the incorporation of specific designs based on serious games. Previous studies on their use do not provide conclusive data on the advancement in learning, both at a general level and in specific contents. The main objective of this work is to study the impact of the use of serious games in primary education classrooms, specifically on mathematics fluency, taking into account gamification variables and teaching experience. A quasi-experimental study was carried out with a pretest-posttest design, without a control group and with several experimental groups, involving 284 students from the first to the fourth grade. The results show a significant improvement in mathematics fluency with the use of serious games in the different grades and classroom groups studied. The gamification strategy promotes even greater progress over the classes where it has not been implemented. There is a similar time of use of serious games by both novice and experienced teachers, with better results in mathematics fluency in the case of the second group. It also shows the relationship between the results obtained and the school grades of the students. The findings point to the potential of using serious games designed specifically for school environments and challenge previous work on generational barriers in teachers. En estos últimos años ha habido una renovación del software educativo propiciada por la incorporación de diseños específicos basados en juegos serios. Los estudios previos sobre su uso no ofrecen datos concluyentes sobre el avance en el aprendizaje, tanto a nivel general como de contenidos específicos. El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es conocer el impacto del uso de juegos serios en las aulas de educación primaria, concretamente en la fluidez matemática del alumnado, atendiendo a variables de gamificación y experiencia docente. Se lleva a cabo un estudio cuasi-experimental con pretest-postest, sin grupo control y con varios grupos experimentales, en el que participan 284 estudiantes de primero a cuarto curso. Los resultados muestran una mejora significativa de la fluidez matemática con el uso de juegos serios en los distintos cursos y grupos-aula estudiados. La estrategia de gamificación promueve un progreso aún mayor respecto a las aulas en las que no se ha implementado. Se observa un tiempo de uso similar de los juegos serios por parte de profesores noveles y experimentados, con mejores resultados en fluidez matemática en el caso de los segundos. También se muestra la relación existente entre los resultados obtenidos y las calificaciones del alumnado. Las conclusiones señalan el potencial del uso de juegos serios diseñados específicamente para entornos escolares y cuestionan trabajos previos sobre las barreras generacionales en el profesorado.

Dyscalculia in Learning Mathematics: Underpinning Concerns for Delivering Contents

Dyscalculia is a term that affects the ability to acquire arithmetical skills. It is one of the important areas of a specific learning disorder in mathematics covering the areas particularly, number sense, memorization of arithmetic facts, accurate and fluent calculation, and accurate math reasoning. It is estimated that about 3-6 percent of the population is facing problems associated with dyscalculia. This paper explores the theoretical consideration of dyscalculia in learning mathematics and outlines the ways of employing effective pedagogy to address dyscalculic students. The study is based on theoretical and descriptive methods. It focuses on the theoretical concern about learning mathematics, dyscalculia, its meaning and concept, types, causes, common difficult areas and impacts on mathematics learning. It also draws out the way of effectively delivering content and provides support for the dyscalculic learner. This article concludes that dyscalculic learners are facing various difficulties due to their weak number sense, low basic mathematics fluency, reasoning and accurate arithmetic calculation. Thus it is essential to provide specialized instruction as well as extra support to uplifts and retain the skills and performance of the dyscalculic learner in mathematics. Otherwise, the arithmetic inability can lead the learner to more difficult circumstances that may be beyond the classroom learning context.

Registered Replication Report on Fischer, Castel, Dodd, and Pratt (2003)

The attentional spatial-numerical association of response codes (Att-SNARC) effect (Fischer, Castel, Dodd, & Pratt, 2003)—the finding that participants are quicker to detect left-side targets when the targets are preceded by small numbers and quicker to detect right-side targets when they are preceded by large numbers—has been used as evidence for embodied number representations and to support strong claims about the link between number and space (e.g., a mental number line). We attempted to replicate Experiment 2 of Fischer et al. by collecting data from 1,105 participants at 17 labs. Across all 1,105 participants and four interstimulus-interval conditions, the proportion of times the effect we observed was positive (i.e., directionally consistent with the original effect) was .50. Further, the effects we observed both within and across labs were minuscule and incompatible with those observed by Fischer et al. Given this, we conclude that we failed to replicate the effect reported by Fischer et al. In addition, our analysis of several participant-level moderators (finger-counting habits, reading and writing direction, handedness, and mathematics fluency and mathematics anxiety) revealed no substantial moderating effects. Our results indicate that the Att-SNARC effect cannot be used as evidence to support strong claims about the link between number and space.

Three Student Engagement Strategies to Help Elementary Teachers Work Smarter, Not Harder, in Mathematics

Many students with and/or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders have academic deficits that affect their performance in mathematics. In addition, these students’ behavioral issues may interfere with their academic achievement. For these students, it makes sense for teachers to consider implementing research- and/or evidence-based practices that simultaneously promote mathematics fluency and increased academic engagement. The purpose of this article is to provide teachers with three instructional practices that we believe can easily be integrated into mathematics instruction. The practices are opportunities to respond, token economy, and self-monitoring.