Author(s)

Kalyn Jon Cody¹, Audrey C. Rule², Benjamin R. Forsyth³

¹Hubbell Elementary School, Des Moines, IA, USA.
²Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Center for Educational Transformation, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA.
³Educational Psychology and Foundations, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA.

Twenty-four high-performing fifth grade students (aged 10 - 11 years) participated in a year-long study in which conditions alternated for six instructional units between lecture-based mathematics instruction and practice through solving additional problems in small groups versus practice through designing and playing mathematics games related to the topic. Students scored similarly on all units at the time of the posttest. Creating games allowed students to examine concepts on their own, making sense of them at a deeper level, avoiding confusion. Game-making may also have made the mathematics more personal, relevant, and interesting. The authors suggest that mathematics teachers consider adding game-making to their strategies for practicing and applying mathematical concepts.

Instructional Games, Motivation, Student Choice, Mathematics

Cody, K. , Rule, A. and Forsyth, B. (2015) Mathematical Game Creation and Play Assists Students in Practicing Newly-Learned Challenging Concepts. Creative Education, 6, 1484-1495. doi: 10.4236/ce.2015.614149.