Abstract
The promise that mathematics can be taught from a young age through fun, engaging games is an enticing proposition, so enticing that considerable effort has been expended to determine whether gaming is an effective teaching tool. This effort includes not just individual investigations but multiple meta-analyses with a combined evaluation of over 500 studies testing the effectiveness of educational games. Despite all of this interest and the resulting concerted research effort, there is no clear answer as to whether games are a viable tool for improving young children’s numeracy ability. This ambiguity is due to math game research not addressing two critical questions: what is a game and how does learning occur within the context of a game. Answering these questions is the first step in determining whether math games can be both fun and formative.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abt, C. C. (1975). Serious games. New York, NY: Viking Compass.
Alloway, T. (2007). Working memory, reading, and mathematical skills in children with developmental coordination disorder. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 96, 20–36.
Annetta, L. A., Minogue, J., Holmes, S. Y., & Cheng, M.-T. (2009). Investigating the impact of video games on high school students’ engagement and learning about genetics. Computers & Education, 53(1), 74–85. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2008.12.020.
Annetta, L. A., Murray, M. R., Laird, S. G., Bohr, S. C., & Park, J. C. (2006). Serious games: Incorporating video games in the classroom. Educause Quarterly, 3, 16–22.
Bakker, M., Van Den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M., & Robitzsch, A. (2015). Effects of playing mathematics computer games on primary school students’ multiplicative reasoning ability. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 40(C), 55–71.
Ballard, C. G., Corbett, A., Clack, H., & Owen, A. (2010). Can brain training games improve cognition in people over 60? Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 6(4), e55–e56. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2010.08.171.
Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R., & Tuzun, H. (2005). Making learning fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without guns. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(1), 86–107. doi:10.1007/BF02504859.
Bateson, G. (1987). Steps to an ecology of mind. NY: Ballantine.
Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Butterworth, B. (2011). 16 - Foundational numerical capacities and the origins of dyscalculia. Space, Time and Number in the Brain, 1(c), 249–265. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-385948-8.00016-5.
Caillois, R. (1958). Les, jeux et les hommes (Man, play, and games). Librairie Gallimard, Paris.
Chang, M., Evans, M., Kim, S., Deater-Deckard, K., & Norton, A. (2014). Educational video games and students’ game engagement (pp. 1–3). Presented at the 2014 International Conference on Information Science and Applications (ICISA), IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICISA.2014.6847390.
Chang, M., Evans, M. A., Kim, S., Norton, A., Deater-Deckard, K., & Samur, Y. (2015). The effects of an educational video game on mathematical engagement. Education and Information Technologies, 1–17.
Chorianopoulos, K., Giannakos, M. N., & Chrisochoides, N. (2014). Design Principles for Serious Games in Mathematics (pp. 1–5). Presented at the the 18th Panhellenic Conference, New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal performance. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Deater-Deckard, K., Chang, M., & Evans, M. E. (2013). Engagement states and learning from educational games. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2013(139), 21–30. doi:10.1002/cad.20028.
Deater-Deckard, K., Mallah, E., Chang, S., Evans, M. A., & Norton, A. (2014). Student behavioral engagement during mathematics educational video game instruction with 11–14 year olds. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 2(3), 101–108. doi:10.1016/j.ijcci.2014.08.001.
Dehaene, S. (1997). The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dempsey, J. V., Rasmussen, K., & Lucassen, B. (1996). Instructional gaming: Implications for instructional technology. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Nashville, TN.
Emes, C. E. (1997). Is Mr Pac Man eating our children? A review of the effects of video games on children. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 42, 409–414.
Evans, M. A., Norton, A., Chang, M., Deater-Deckard, K., & Balci, O. (2013). Youth and video games: Exploring effects on learning and engagement. Zeitschrift Für Psychologie, 221(2), 98–106. doi:10.1027/2151-2604/a000135.
Feigenson, L. (2008). Parallel non-verbal enumeration is constrained by a set-based limit. Cognition, 107, 1–18.
Foreman, J. (2003). Next-generation educational technology versus the lecture. EDUCAUSE Review, 38(4), 12–22.
Fredricks, J., Blumenfeld, P., & Paris, A. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59–109.
Gallagher, A. M., De Lisi, R., Holst, P. C., Lisi, A. V. M.-D., Morely, M., & Cahalan, C. (2000). Gender differences in advanced mathematical problem solving. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 75, 165–190.
Gee, J. P. (2005). Demonstrating the important learning found in COTS games. Paper presented at the Serious Games Summit 2005, San Francisco, CA.
Girard, C., Ecalle, J., & Magnan, A. (2012). Serious games as new educational tools: How effective are they? A meta-analysis of recent studies. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(3), 207–219. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2012.00489.x.
Harris, J. (2001). The effects of computer games on young children: A review of the research. RDS Occasional Paper, N0. 72, Research, Development, and Statistics Directorate, Government, UK.
Harris, A., Yuill, N., & Luckin, R. (2008). The influence of context-specific and dispositional achievement goals on children’s paired collaborative interaction. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 355–374. doi:10.1348/000709907X267067.
Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo Ludens A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Beacon Press. Boston, USA.
Ischebeck, A., Schocke, M., & Delazer, M. (2009). The processing and representation of fractions within the brain: An fMRI investigation. NeuroImage, 47, 403–412.
Jordan, N. C., Kaplan, D., Nabors Oláh, L., & Locuniak, M. N. (2006). Number sense growth in kindergarten: A longitudinal investigation of children at risk for mathematics difficulties. Child Development, 77(1), 153–175.
Juul, J. (2005). Half-real. Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Juul, J. (2009). Fear of failing? the many meanings of difficulty in video games. The Video Game Theory Reader, 2, 237–252.
Juul, J. (2013). The art of failure: An essay on the pain of playing video games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ke, F. (2008). A case study of computer gaming for math: Engaged learning from gameplay? Computers & Education, 51(4), 1609–1620. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2008.03.003.
Kebritchi, M., Hirumi, A., & Bai, H. (2010). The effects of modern mathematics computer games on mathematics achievement and class motivation. Computers & Education, 55(2), 427–443. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.007.
Kirriemuir, J., & McFarlane, A. (2004). Literature review in games and learning: A report for Futurelab. Retrieved June 15, 2015, from http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/reviews/08_01/html.
Koster, R. (2004). Theory of fun for game design. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.
Kucirkova, N. (2014). iPads in early education: Separating assumptions and evidence. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 715. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00715.
Laski, E. V., & Siegler, R. S. (2013). Learning From Number Board Games: You Learn What You Encode. Developmental Psychology, 1–13.
Lefevre, J.-A., Wells, E., & Sowinski, C. (2014). Individual differences in basic arithmetical processes in children and adults. In Oxford handbook of numerical cognition (pp. 1–17). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199642342.013.005.
Maertens, M., Vandewaetere, M., Cornillie, F., & Desmet, P. (2014). From pen-and-paper content to educational math game content for children: A transfer with added difficulty. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 2(2), 85–92.
Mayer, R. (2014). Computer game for learning: An evidence-based approach. London: The MIT Press.
Mayo, M. (2009). Video games: A route to large-scale STEM education? Science, 323(5910), 79–82. doi:10.1126/science.1166900.
McEwen, R., & Dubé, A. K. (2015a). Intuitive or idiomatic? An information studies and cognitive psychology study of child-tablet computer interaction. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 51, 1–10. doi:10.1002/asi.23470.
McEwen, R., & Dubé, A. K. (2015b). Engaging or distracting: Children’s tablet computer use in education. Journal of Educational Technology and Society, 18, 9–23.
Murray, J. H. (1997). Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Norton, A., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2014). Mathematics in mind, brain, and education: A neo-piagetian approach. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 12(3), 647–667. doi:10.1007/s10763-014-9512-6.
Oblinger, D. G. (2006). Games and learning: Digital games have the potential to bring play back to the learning experience. Educause Quarterly, 3, 5–7.
O’Hearn, K., Hoffman, J.E., & Landau, B. (2011). Small subitizing range in people with Williams syndrome. Visual Cognition, 19(3), 289–312.
Onatsu-Arvilommi, T., & Nurmi, J. E. (2000). The role of task-avoidant and task-focused behaviors in the development of reading and mathematical skills during the first school year. A cross-lagged longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(3), 478–491. doi:10.1037//0022-0663.92.3.478.
Pass, F., Renkle, A., & Sweller, J. (2004). Cognitive load theory: Instructional implications of the interaction between information structure and cognitive architecture. Instructional Science, 32, 1–8.
PEW Research Internet Project. (2014). Mobile technology fact sheet e Jan 2014. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/.
Presser, A. L., Vahey, P., & Zanchi, C. (2013). Designing early childhood math games: A research-driven approach (pp. 376–379). New York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2485760.2485802.
Ramani, G. B., & Siegler, R. S. (2008). Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children’s numerical knowledge through playing number board games. Child Development, 79, 375–394.
Ramani, G. B., Siegler, R. S., & Hitti, A. (2012). Taking it to the classroom: Number board games as a small group learning activity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(3), 661–672. doi:10.1037/a0028995.
Randel, J., Morris, B., Wetzel, C. D., & Whitehall, B. (1992). The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: A review of recent research. Simulation and Gaming, 23(3), 261–276.
Revkin, S., Piazza, M., Izard, V., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S. (2008). Does subitizing reflect numerical estimation? Psychological Science, 19, 607.
Rogers, S. (2010). Level up!: The guide to great video game design. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Shin, N., Sutherland, L. M., Norris, C. A., & Soloway, E. (2012). Effects of game technology on elementary student learning in mathematics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(4), 540–560. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01197.x.
Shrager, J., & Siegler, R. S. (1998). SCADS: A model of children’s strategy choices and strategy discoveries. Psychological Science, 9(5), 405–410.
Shuler, C. (2012). iLearn II: An analysis of the education category of the itunes app store. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
Siegler, R. S., & Araya, R. (2005). A computational model of conscious and unconscious strategy discover. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 33, 1–42.
Siegler, R. S., & Lemair, P. (1997). Older and younger adults’ strategy choices in multiplication: Testing predictions of ASCM using the choice/no-choice method. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 126, 71.
Siegler, R. S., & Ramani, G. B. (2009). Playing linear number board games—But not circular ones—Improves low-income preschoolers’ numerical understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 545–560. doi:10.1037/a0014239.
Skwarchuk, S.-L., Sowinski, C., & Lefevre, J.-A. (2014). Formal and informal home learning activities in relation to children’s early numeracy and literacy skills: The development of a home numeracy model. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121(C), 63–84. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2013.11.006.
Suits, B. (1978). The grasshopper: Games, life, and utopia. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.
Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction, 4(4), 295–312.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wilson, A. J., Dehaene, S., Pinel, P., Revkin, S. K., Cohen, L., & Cohen, D. (2006). Principles underlying the design of “The Number Race”, an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2(1), 19. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-2-19.
Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., & van der Spek, E. D. (2013). A meta-analysis of the cognitive and motivational effects of serious games. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 249–265. doi:10.1037/a0031311.
Young, M. F., Slota, S., Cutter, A. B., Jalette, G., Mullin, G., Lai, B., … Yukhymenko, M. (2012). Our princess is in another castle: A review of trends in serious gaming for education. Review of Educational Research, 82(1), 61–89. doi:10.3102/0034654312436980.
Zimmerman, E. (2004). Narrative, interactivity, play, and games: Four naughty concepts in need of discipline. In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 154–164). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dubé, A.K., Keenan, A. (2016). Are Games a Viable Home Numeracy Practice?. In: Blevins-Knabe, B., Austin, A. (eds) Early Childhood Mathematics Skill Development in the Home Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43974-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43974-7_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43972-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43974-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)