Games
We believe that well-designed learning games can enhance students’ engagement with foundational mathematical ideas, tying together content, context and motivation. They can play powerful roles in early exposure and reinforcement in addition to being used for consolidation of ideas and as a fun reward.
Different kinds of games can meet different needs. Some games can help students experiment with ideas and with their mathematical agency, making insights and skills instantly useful and meaningful and providing immediate and targeted feedback. Others may focus on helping students improve their fluency so that they can free up their attention later on to think holistically about more complex problems with essential basic skills at their fingertips.
Games can also be part of a well-rounded social learning environment, providing a “third space” with different rules from home or school.1 In effective learning game spaces:2
- Trying is encouraged because failure is safe and feedback to aid improvement is readily available; students can learn by doing.
- Problems are well-ordered with clear goals, appropriate scaffolding and rewards.
- Students’ actions are consequential; they can transform the game world.
- Learning content is embedded in context and solutions are embedded in action.
- Power dynamics can be quite different, foregrounding students and their peers and backgrounding teachers, opening doors for new types of interactions.
These third spaces can even be transformative when it comes to students’ academic identities more broadly.3 Some students can feel a greater sense of mastery over game environments than traditional ones, and the confidence they build with knowledge and skills in games can sometimes translate to their actions in the wider school environment and beyond.