Literature review - Computer games + psychology of learning Mathematics

After a thorough reading on Kamran Sedighian and Andishe Sedighian's article on the topic of 'Can Educational Computer Games Help Educators Learn About The Psychology Of Learning Mathematics In Children?', our group came up with the following thoughts and comments:

The advantages of educational computer games for learning Mathematics in children:
Games are parts of children’s social lives, therefore it:

i) MOTIVATES children's inquisition in participating in the interactivity activities/games, indirectly promoting Mathematical learning along the way.

ii) DEVELOPS a sense of curiosity towards the subject matter.

iii) CAPTURES their interest and fulfill their learning needs. This will lead to a spur of motivation towards the subject (mathematics).

iv) PROVIDES a sense of empowerment towards learning.

v) CATERS to both intrinsic and extrinsic sense of imagination.

vi) CHALLENGES children’s ability.

vii) REINFORCES what children had experienced and learned previously during the Mathematics lessons.

viii) IMPROVES children's mathematical skills as a sense of achievement is rewarded based on completion of levels (extrinsic motivation).


The disadvantages of educational computer games for learning Mathematics in children:
Why we think computer games are not assisting children in their learning of Mathematics..

i) Children should be exposed and taught to master the mathematical concepts prior to engagement with the activities in the games. They need strong mathematical foundations as a basis to every mathematical concepts and problems.

ii) The games could be de-motivating at certain times, eg: when children are quite distorted about the concepts, they would not be able to pursue the game at some higher levels of the games, thus leading to frustration, lost of interest and in the end giving up.

As a conclusion, we have come up with our stand in supporting the employment of educational computer games in order to help educators learn about the psychology of learning Mathematics in children. Therefore, we have came up with a few suggestions to further improve the above disadvantages:
For the computer games, we could..

i) PROVIDE clues to some possible difficulties that the children will be facing in order to motivate them.

ii) INTEGRATE various mathematical games in each game provided so that they are holistically developed.

iii) ‘DISNEYFIED’ (embed various known characters plus songs, colourful themes to the games) to meet their needs and interests.

iv) PROVIDE different level of competency (easy, medium, hard).


With that, we end our discussion. We warmly welcome comments and further discussions. Thank you (: