The effects of computer gaming on student motivation and basic multiplication fluency

The purpose of this study was to determine if mastering multiplication facts and developing mathematical understanding could be associated with modern instructional gaming. This study was developed to determine the effects that a computer modern instructional game had on basic multiplication fluency, student motivation, and student self-efficacy toward mathematics. Seventy 3rd grade students from 4 different classes as well as the 4 teachers of those classes participated in the study. The modern instructional game, Timez Attack, was chosen for this study because of its three-dimensional video effects and focus on multiplication tables 2 through 12. The students played Timez Attack for one hour once a week over the course of sixteen weeks. A Simple Pretest-Posttest Research Design was used in this study. All of the students involved in the study were administered a survey measuring the students' mathematical self-efficacy and motivation before and after the treatment; the modern instructional Timez Attack game. Additionally, teachers of the classes were given a survey gathering their perceptions of the students' motivation towards learning mathematics before and after the implementation Timez Attack. The study also used student data to determine the different kinds of errors made by the students before, during, and after they engaged in playing Timez Attack. The results indicated a statistically significant increase in student computational achievement in multiplication, division, and algebraic skills after using the modern instructional game, Timez Attack. No significant difference was found in the conceptual understanding of mathematics through the use of word problems from the pre-test to post-test. In the area of motivation, the results revealed an increase in student motivation for learning mathematics. The results indicated that students maintained a high interest level in mathematics that was piqued by the computer usage. The statistical analysis that resulted from the study also supported the theory that playing computer games, specifically Timez Attack, improved students' self-efficacy for learning mathematics. By analyzing the software data, the results indicated that the average number of errors decreased as students worked through the game.