Mathematical Literacy for Everyone using Arithmetic Games Lena Pareto, University West Sweden

Overall project Idea: Talking and Seeing math in games Mathematics game environment Basic math, no numbers and symbols Learning goals: Conceptual understanding Reasoning skills Strategic thinking Previous study 500 students grade 1-8 Previous results: Gain math performance Gain self-efficacy Low-achieving gain most Now 800 students grade 1-6 special education

The game different platforms: Graphical math: 2 player collaborative or competitive game

Focus in this paper New student group with Intellectual disabilities Special education Training school curriculum Moderate or severe intellectual disability often limited communication skills Test of new Augmented reality version of game Collaboration with local science centre Ported one collaboration game, number range 1-10 Play game by building with physical cubes

Collected data  Performance data from game logs  Teacher interviews

Results performance level from game log Grey bars = average mainstream students Red bars = special education student 1-4 Yellow bars = special education students 6-8  Performance as average mainstream students, or better  Student 1 and 3 played the 2 difficult games also well

Results progression over time strategic games Grey lines = average progression mainstream students Red lines = special education students 1-4 Blue line = student with Aspberger syndrome  starts lower, more progression.  Student 3 started lowest, ended excellent game play

Results – teacher interviews Situation in the beginning No students liked the game the in beginning Student 2 and 4 did not understand addition at all Student 4 had to point-count numbers small as 3 Student 4 used only one-word sentences Could not collaborate at all, refused to look at each other or at the game board, just guessed Student 5 (Asperger) refused to communicate with anyone 3 years ago

Results: teacher citations of students’ progressions “Student 4 is the one who gained most in communication skills, the improvement is just amazing. Today, he can stand in front of the white board and reason about the solution: You can take 7, and I will take 2”. “The game is the reason [student 4] is able to do math, and has gained self-confidence. [Student 2] now knows the numbers up to 10, and has also gained self-confidence, which in turn gives some self-respect. Hence they talk since they are worth listening to.

Results: teacher about self-confidence “I [the teacher] think that these students’ low abilities is about having failed so many times so there is no self-confidence left at all. Grouping such students together is not good; there is normally no growth in such a group. Playing this game is an exception when growth actually occurs.”

Conclusion Good pedagogues can use this game to help students with intellectual disabilities to Gain self-confidence (no failure paradigm) Learn number sense and basic math Improve communication and collaboration skills Practice reasoning skills And can perform at similar levels as mainstream students given enough time

Thank you for your attention! Questions?