When a game supports prevocational math education but integrated reflection does not

The present study addressed the effectiveness of an educational math game for improving proportional reasoning in prevocational education, and examined the added value of support in the form of reflection. The study compared four conditions: the game with reflection prompts, the game with reflection prompts plus procedural information, the game with procedural information only and the game without additional support. It was found that students' proportional reasoning skill improved after playing the game. The game managed to target prevocational students with low prior knowledge, a group that has the potential to understand proportional reasoning but has not yet encountered the right learning situation to live up to their potential. However, it was also found that students need to be computational fluent to profit from the game. Furthermore, no added value of the support was found. The way the support was structured may have been too demanding for most of the students. The fact that the prevocational students and specifically those with low prior knowledge improved by playing the game is noteworthy, because the topic of proportional reasoning is demanding for this group of students who often have lower abilities as well as in some cases a high resistance to learning.

[1]  James E. Driskell,et al.  Games, Motivation, and Learning: A Research and Practice Model , 2002 .

[2]  Michelene T. H. Chi,et al.  Self-Explanations: How Students Study and Use Examples in Learning To Solve Problems. Technical Report No. 9. , 1987 .

[3]  Ton de Jong,et al.  How to Adapt Games for Learning: The Potential Role of Instructional Support , 2012 .

[4]  Sylke Vandercruysse,et al.  Game-Based Learning: A Review on the Effectiveness of Educational Games , 2012 .

[5]  Atsusi Hirumi,et al.  The effects of modern mathematics computer games on mathematics achievement and class motivation , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[6]  Michael K. Thomas,et al.  Making learning fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without guns , 2005 .

[7]  Jim Bizzocchi,et al.  Game, Motivation, and Effective Learning: An Integrated Model for Educational Game Design , 2005, DiGRA Conference.

[8]  Robert Wall Emerson,et al.  Computational Fluency Performance Profile of High School Students With Mathematics Disabilities , 2007 .

[9]  D. Deshler,et al.  Learning Disabled Adolescents in the Public Schools: Are They Different from Other Low Achievers? , 1980 .

[10]  M. P. Jacob Habgood,et al.  Motivating Children to Learn Effectively: Exploring the Value of Intrinsic Integration in Educational Games , 2011 .

[11]  Armin Weinberger,et al.  Proportion: Learning Proportional Reasoning Together , 2012, EC-TEL.

[12]  Francoise Tourniaire,et al.  Proportions in elementary school , 1986 .

[13]  Jean Écalle,et al.  Serious games as new educational tools: how effective are they? A meta-analysis of recent studies , 2013, J. Comput. Assist. Learn..

[14]  Ton de Jong,et al.  Instructional support in games , 2011, CGAMES 2011.

[15]  C. Lawton,et al.  Contextual Factors Affecting Errors in Proportional Reasoning. , 1993 .

[16]  Chin-Chung Tsai,et al.  Game-Based Learning in Science Education: A Review of Relevant Research , 2013 .

[17]  Cheryl I. Johnson,et al.  Applying the self-explanation principle to multimedia learning in a computer-based game-like environment , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[18]  K. Squire.  Changing the Game: What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom? , 2005 .

[19]  Terry E. Duncan,et al.  Psychometric properties of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory in a competitive sport setting: a confirmatory factor analysis. , 1989, Research quarterly for exercise and sport.

[20]  Min Liu,et al.  A study of learning and motivation in a new media enriched environment for middle school science , 2011 .

[21]  V. Aleven,et al.  Triggering situational interest by decorative illustrations both fosters and hinders learning in computer-based learning environments , 2014 .

[22]  Thomas W. Malone.  What makes computer games fun? (abstract only) , 1982, CHI 1982.

[23]  Lieven Verschaffel,et al.  Students' overuse of proportionality on missing-value problems: how numbers may change solutions , 2009 .

[24]  Florian Jentsch,et al.  The Play Experience Scale , 2012, Hum. Factors.

[25]  R. Dihoff,et al.  The Role of Feedback During Academic Testing: The Delay Retention Effect Revisited , 2003 .

[26]  M. Lepper,et al.  A desire to be taught: Instructional consequences of intrinsic motivation , 1992 .

[27]  Eric Jamet,et al.  Digital game-based learning: Impact of instructions and feedback on motivation and learning effectiveness , 2013, Comput. Educ..

[28]  E. Davis.  Prompting Middle School Science Students for Productive Reflection: Generic and Directed Prompts , 2003 .

[29]  F. Paas,et al.  How to Optimize Learning From Animated Models: A Review of Guidelines Based on Cognitive Load , 2008 .

[30]  Steven Pulos,et al.  Proportional reasoning: A review of the literature , 1985 .

[31]  Andrew K. Przybylski,et al.  The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach , 2006 .

[32]  Mariano Alcañiz Raya,et al.  Learning in serious virtual worlds: Evaluation of learning effectiveness and appeal to students in the E-Junior project , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[33]  Fengfeng Ke,et al.  A case study of computer gaming for math: Engaged learning from gameplay? , 2008, Comput. Educ..

[34]  Alexander Renkl,et al.  Assisting self-explanation prompts are more effective than open prompts when learning with multiple representations , 2009 .

[35]  Michelle F. Wright,et al.  Computer Gaming and Interactive Simulations for Learning: A Meta-Analysis , 2006 .

[36]  Marina Papastergiou,et al.  Digital Game-Based Learning in high school Computer Science education: Impact on educational effectiveness and student motivation , 2009, Comput. Educ..

[37]  C. Wolters.  Self-Regulated Learning and College Students' Regulation of Motivation. , 1998 .

[38]  Atsusi Hirumi,et al.  Examining the pedagogical foundations of modern educational computer games , 2008, Comput. Educ..

[39]  Peta Wyeth,et al.  GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games , 2005, CIE.

[40]  H. O'Neil,et al.  Classification of learning outcomes: evidence from the computer games literature , 2005 .

[41]  Naomi J. Aldrich,et al.  Does Discovery-Based Instruction Enhance Learning?. , 2011 .

[42]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning: Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning , 2005 .