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A Game-Based Approach to Examining Students’ Conceptual Knowledge of Fractions

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Games and Learning Alliance (GALA 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10056))

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Abstract

Considering the difficulties many students and even educated adults face with reasoning about fractions, the potential for serious games to augment traditional instructional approaches on this topic is strong. The present study aims at providing evidence for the validity of a serious game used for studying students’ conceptual knowledge of fractions. A total of 54 Finnish fifth graders played the math game on tablet computers using tilt-control to maneuver an avatar along a number line for a total of 30 min. Results indicated that most of the hallmark effects of fraction magnitude processing as identified in basic research on numerical cognition were successfully replicated using our serious game. This clearly suggests that game-based approaches for fraction education (even using tilt-control) are possible and may be effective tools for assessing and possibly promoting students’ conceptual knowledge of fractions.

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Acknowledgments

The current research was supported by the Leibniz-Competition Fund (SAW) supporting Manuel Ninaus (SAW-2016-IWM-3) and Academy of Finland supporting Kristian Kiili.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tuebingen, Germany

    Manuel Ninaus & Korbinian Moeller

  2. LEAD Graduate School, Eberhard-Karls University, Tuebingen, Germany

    Manuel Ninaus & Korbinian Moeller

  3. TUT Game Lab, Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland

    Kristian Kiili

  4. Centre for Learning Research, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Jake McMullen

  5. Department of Psychology, Eberhard Karls University, Tuebingen, Germany

    Korbinian Moeller

Authors
  1. Manuel Ninaus
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  2. Kristian Kiili
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  3. Jake McMullen
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  4. Korbinian Moeller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Ninaus .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Educational Technology, Genova, Italy

    Rosa Bottino

  2. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Johan Jeuring

  3. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Remco C. Veltkamp

Appendix: Fraction Comparison Pairs

Appendix: Fraction Comparison Pairs

See Table 1.

Table 1. Fraction comparison pairs separated by fraction type and distance.
Full size table

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Ninaus, M., Kiili, K., McMullen, J., Moeller, K. (2016). A Game-Based Approach to Examining Students’ Conceptual Knowledge of Fractions. In: Bottino, R., Jeuring, J., Veltkamp, R. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10056. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50182-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50182-6_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50181-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50182-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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