DO COMPUTER GAMES HELP YOUR X TABLES?

ALAN ROBERTSON
LIBERTON CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
YEAR 3, 4, 5

Teaching Inquiry Question
Can computer game activities assist the learning of student’s X basic facts as effectively as traditional methods?

Rationale:

• Help improve student’s basic facts speed and accuracy recall
• Prioritise and provide a variety of regular basic facts recall and practice activities

The Highlight of the Project
Actually seeing a marked improvement in the students’ basic facts knowledge and speed recall and secondly seeing them enjoy the learning style that they preferred – some wanted and loved the computer and others chose and loved the traditional learning style. Their attitude responses showed that overall it was a positive experience for them.

What I did
First of all I found a variety of x Basic facts game and practice type applications on the internet then linked them directly to a maths page on my class wiki.

Then followed the procedure as outlined below…

1. Gave students an attitude questionnaire / Pre-test (Baseline data)
2. Explained the intention / expectations and activity styles
3. Allowed students to elect learning style - (teacher to balance similar test results for fair comparison at end)
4. Daily practice – teacher guidance / support
5. Students worked in pairs - balanced turns in roles
6. Research period = 7 weeks
7. Occasional reflection times during process
8. Post test and attitude / response questionnaire

Problems / Difficulties and my Solutions
The hardest bit was finding suitable websites that gave a balance of practice , knowledge and appropriate applications rather than just fun and games – once the time was spent and the games were put onto wiki then it was well worth the effort.

Conclusions
I don’t feel that there was any really conclusive evidence that one way of learning is much better than the other – but after discussing the programme with students and comparing the improvement results I feel that the most important indication was that the students appreciated the opportunity to try and learn in some way that would best suit their interests, skills and attitudes – The project...

• reinforced the importance and need for regular, disciplined basic facts revision and practice
• made it obvious that any practice and focus does have beneficial results and effects on children’s learning
• highlighted the fact that children do have different learning style preferences and where possible teachers should provide opportunities to help cater for these needs

Where to Next

• allow children the opportunity to have some input into the type of learning style they would prefer when learning their basic facts
• deliberately incorporate opportunities for a mixture of both computer activity and traditional learning methods for basic facts practice in class programme

What difference has your Teaching Inquiry made to student learning?

• All Students improved their x basic speed and knowlege
• Both learning methods were enjoyed Computer: Av Pre 49.37 Av Post 70.87 Average Increase 21.5 and Traditional: Av Pre 52.12 Av Post 69.12 Average Increase 17
• Another very positive result was that the students really did enjoy the experience and opportunity to learn how they wanted to, and they too were very pleased and proud of their progress
• The attitude indicators for two similar questions in the Pre and Post Test questionnaires had a positive reversal of responses – Ratings moved from 13 to 31 enjoyed basic facts learning, 26 to 13 didn't mind basic facts learning , 3 to 0 didn't enjoy basic facts learning.