ABSTRACT

Our educational system has consistently sought means of improving the way student learn and businesses are designing new effective tools for educational purposes. The growing use of technology, especially mathematical educational video games, stands out as a powerful mediums  within the classroom for helping student master new mathematics ideas and enabling learners make sense of formal mathematical ideas.
The aim of this study was to explain why student were achieving mathematical skills playing video games yet performed poorly in class performing the same exact math equations and understanding? The study observed of 40 students consisting of 2 classrooms, one forth grade class and one third grade class;  utilizing a mixed methodology, monitoring their performance on educational video games for which students were allowed to choose their game preference through ST Math by MIND Research Institute (www.stmath.com).( ST Math is one of the premiere and most widely used mathematical educational video games on the market and used worldwide receiving both praise and awards for their innovative software.) Students were also observed within the typical classroom setting being instructed on Common Core State Standard mathematics (CCSS), performing mathematical operations in Stepping Stones ORIGO Education (www.origoeducation.com) student workbooks; and on math handouts and performance tests. Some additional observations of student interactions were also recorded and discussed as qualitative data by the principal researcher as a means to understand this phenomena of mathematical understandings.
The research suggests a separation of cognitive function from the virtual world of the video games and the classroom, where as students are not able to connect virtual education to real world mathematical understanding. The study’s results has implications for consideration of how educational game design and practices are used within the classroom to educate students and how video games effect the minds of the player.

 

Purpose of Study

During daily student observation, it was noted that a 4th grade teacher was instructing students on carrying over of addition for two to four-digit mixed numbers. Students were having a difficult time grasping the understanding that taking away from the tenth place represented adding 10 to the ones place. Some student were still having difficulty just adding 6+4. This was 4th graders performing addition and later subtraction, and students should have been aware of this concept prior to 3rd grade. Surly they knew basic addition and if needed this should have been a refresher of mathematics they already knew and possibly forgotten over the summer recess.
Students were then given tablets later in the day and instructed to log into their ST Math. Students were now observed performing 4 digit addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on ST Math with little to no difficulty, moving easily on to the next level of the game, fully aware of how to perform the mathematical operations to find the correct answers! This was again observed in a separate school in a 3rd grade classroom.
Asking the instructor about this, why she was teaching addition when students are already performing this and doing multiplication on ST Math? Her response was “Students haven’t concord caring over yet, but we will get to multiplication by the end of the year… Its just that the computer (ST math) performs its evaluation differently allowing students to advance…”  I was not fond of this response. Regardless of how students were evaluated, either by computer or in class performance, they should reflect equally to the knowledge and skills observed. There shouldn’t be a disconnect. If student can perform abstract thinking on the computer then why couldn’t they perform the same cognitive responses on paper?  I was unable to see why students were not capable of applying what they learned on the computer to the same problems on paper? Why were they able to solve 8x3=24 on the computer and yet 8x3 or 8+8+8= on paper was 32? The wrong answer. Truly there was a disconnect between the classroom and their computerized training

 

Analysis

I began researching educational video games research on the web. Finding mostly papers praising the effectiveness of cognitive learning “Students appreciate and enjoy games that provide them with a positive learning experience (Bragg, 2006)”. “Studies have shown that games are most beneficial when used by students with poor academic performance (Virvou,Katsionis, & Manos, 2005) or poor motivation (Rebolledo-Mendez, du Boulay, & Luckin, 2006).” I even found “Games can even be used to develop the social skills in children with autism or other special needs (Griffiths, 2002).” The list goes on everyone praising games as a fantastic tool to help students!  I went as far as to research violence in video games and the effects on the minds “Although there is a large and impressive body of research on the effects of violent in video games, Television and other media, there was nothing on any form of disconnect that I witnesses with my students.
Patrick D. Galarza “The Effects of Mathematical Game Play on the Cognitive and Effective Development of Pre-Secondary Students 2019”  found that his “ treatment group potentially remembered algebraic concepts more effectively than the control group, although they carried out far more procedural errors.” It seems that some student separate gaming cognition from actual practical cognition resulting in students learning mathematics but unable to apply them beyond the video game, hence having to learn the math twice. This make sense, although he only noted this result in his paper, it was the only mention I found that addressed this phenomenon. After reading this article I recalled previously reading a similar article that addressed separation of video game violence from reality.  “Some investigators have theorized that ‘interactive ‘media violence in video games may exert a greater effect on an individual than ‘passive’ media violence(such as TV and film), (Porter, 2007)”
“The human body functions very similarly to modern day computers — or rather, computers are very closely aligned to the most complex processing unit there has ever been, namely the human brain. Going back to basics for a moment — any information processing system consists of 5 main components — input, output, storage, processing and program. We can draw parallels between the brain and computers for each of these elements. (Prakash,2017)” A computer creates files or memories and these files do not necessarily link to other files. Such as we don’t link taste to answering a math equation, And so, video games were not linking to application to the classroom.

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Findings

My study found that some student cognitive processes separate video games as virtual, not real, creating a secondary cognitive file within the brain solely for this virtual world. Separating cognitive knowledge and skills from actual practical cognition of daily life.  Resulting in students learning and applying mathematics in the ST Math but unable to relate them to life beyond the games, hence having to learn the math twice. This one way door is due to the application that when students identify virtual reality such as video games as nothing more than a game, identifying items as not real, they do not apply it to reality. Items such as characters, violence that creates no pain and you return from the dead as unharmed, super abilities, events that defy the laws of physics and mathematics skills that students still did not comprehend or learn in the classroom, the students brain consider this knowledge as nothing more than part of a game. It creates a disconnect from reality were as the brain cannot connect the virtual world of comprehending mathematical formula to application to the classroom.
For students to overcome this cognitive disconnect it is vital for teachers to first teach the application, IE: 8x3=24 is the same as 8+8+8=24 prior to allowing student to use technology. The use of technology such as educational video games need to be used as refresher to their education building upon what they know. The “true utility in helping students achieve conceptual mastery (Devlin, 2011; Kitchen & Berk, 2016).” To use video game or virtual classrooms to teach rather than to review what was taught may be teaching nothing to the student that the student can apply to life. It is vital that educators ensure that educational practices are applied to technology and not the other way around. It is better that students apply their understandings of math to the video game building upon their cognitive understanding creating a link to the virtual pedagogy enabling students to learn, building a two-way door to the knowledge gained.

Conclusion
 

 One the most important goals for all educators is understanding your students thinking process. The use of technology in the classroom perhaps has the greatest effect on student learning.  Students mastering virtual lessons may create a disconnect, unable to apply what they learned in VR to reality forcing teachers to re-teach the subject completely wasting valuable class time in the classroom. Although once a two-way link is established students may be capable pursuing higher level math, retaining what they learned. It is outside of this preliminary study to identify if or when this can happen? It was shown that students create a dual cognition, one for virtual reality and the other for our world and that sometimes these to realities do not communicate to each other creating disconnect from what was learned in the VR to applying that in the classroom.
Technology such as ST math should not be used as the means to establish students’ knowledge of mathematics, as the student may not be able to apply this knowledge beyond and to the real world. Care should be taken when applying technology to students to ensure that it is for skills already taught within the classroom so as to create a two-way link to math and the virtual math lessons building upon what they already know.
Although this was a preliminary study, It did establish that video games used in the classroom can create a phenomena whereas student learn but cannot apply it to life creating a disconnect.  Further research is required to 1) Identify the cause and/or factors to why certain students create a disconnect and are unable to establish the connections between the VR education and the classroom lessons. 2) once a link is established after a disconnect, how much knowledge will tipple over? Will they recall higher level math learned in the VR or just the level at the link? 3) is there an effective way to teach all students using technology solely without creating any disconnect from being able to apply it to real life situations?
Until these can be determined, It is recommended that educators restrict technology to only focus on what was taught within the classroom, so that the link to learned knowledge is then applied to the VR increasing their understanding to both realms, creating a two way door of knowledge.

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References

 

https://towardsdatascience.com/neural-networks-is-your-brain-like-a-computer-d76fb65824bf

file:///C:/Users/Richard%20Wittie/Downloads/violence.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6011284_Are_Violent_Video_Games_Harmful

https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30007361/bragg-studentsconflicting-2007.pdf

https://www.origoeducation.com/