Transforming children's mathematical learning through digital games
Get INVOLVED!
How can your school take part
in our research?
We are looking for DEIS and non-DEIS schools to take part in our research piece.
If your school agrees to take part in the Arithmós Project, two direct benefits will be offered. First, a free workshop session for teachers, especially maths teachers, on “Dealing with maths anxiety in the classroom”. Second, an animation professionally designed to explain to children and their families what maths anxiety is. This workshop is presented at MathsMeet 2022, Science Foundation Ireland “Curious Minds Facilitator Workshop, Institute of Physics.
Your school is invited to participate in our research in which we will examine whether a digital game, designed at the Technological University Dublin, can reduce maths anxiety in children. The study design was already submitted to the UCD Ethics Committee, and the research protocol is pre-registered at the OSF platform.
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The research steps are briefly outlined:
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Step 1
Children will answer numerical tasks and questionnaires on their general feelings and about maths. This step will take ≈30 minutes per small group in a single session. All assessments can be taken on five weekdays, we estimate 7-10 days to respect the school routine and eventual issues with individual participants.
Step 2
Children will participate in the intervention sessions (games or educational videos) once a week for ≈45 minutes for 5 weeks.
Step 3
Children will answer the activities from step 1 again, immediately after the intervention.
Step 4
Two months later, children will answer the same activities of step 1 again to examine if the benefits
of training remain after the intervention's end.
Before you join our project
Seven key questions answered
1. What number of pupils would be required for the research?
We are planning to recruit 312 children from selected schools in Dublin. They do not to be all from the same school. So, we will discuss with you how many classes you could allow us to work with, and we will find additional schools elsewhere.
2. What age range of pupils would the research be based on? What class level?
We are inviting children from the 3rd - 4th class to take part in this study. Any children in these class groups are welcome to take part in the study. Even children that are not eligible (for instance due to a diagnosis that impedes carrying out the tasks) are allowed to attend the sessions because we believe in inclusion and equal opportunity. However, their data would not be included in the statistical analysis. The only situation in which a child cannot participate in the study is if the parents/legal guardians do not consent or if the child does not want to. We take ‘assent’ seriously, the child can stop at any time if they do not want to continue.
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3. What ICT would be required?
We do have iPads available funded by a grant foundation. But eventually, we could use the school’s iPads, if there was a preference of yours. The intervention (step 2) is done by pairs of children in the classroom. Thus, we will need half the iPads as the number of children per classroom.
We will also need a Wi-Fi connection. As for steps 1, 3 and 4, children will perform the cognitive assessment in small groups of 4-5 children to take minimal time off their classroom activities. It could be any day of the assessment week, respecting classroom activities and the teacher’s convenience.
Additionally, for the children’s cognitive assessment we will need a quiet room (with sitting space for 4-5 children and an examiner) to conduct the activities with children, of course, it could be an empty classroom too. Children will also use headphones because some tasks are auditory, and we must ensure they are listening to the information well. We can buy headphones in case the school does not have them.
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4. What is the time commitment? How long would this take to complete?
Children will be randomly assigned to the game or video sessions. Children in the game sessions will play the games while children in the educational video sessions will be offered the games after the research completion, therefore, no one is left behind. Each class will have a single session per week lasting 45 minutes only.
The sessions usually would be in the maths class if agreeable, we will decide it with you. The educational videos about maths were selected according to the Irish Curriculum guidelines for their age bands. Therefore, even if they are not having a 45-minute maths class, they are learning maths content appropriate for their grade. Both groups will engage in these activities for 5 weeks.
Activities will be carried out in the presence of their maths teacher although our researchers (tutors) are responsible for all procedures: From logging in/off computers to explaining the game procedures. Tutors will run the classroom sessions and help with any questions children may have. To test the efficacy of the intervention, the cognitive assessment (steps 1, 3 and 4) will examine children’s maths skills and maths anxiety at three time points: before and after playing the games, and in a follow-up a couple of months later. The assessment sessions will take no longer than 30 minutes at each time point and will be conducted by a psychologist. Disruptions in the children's routine will be avoided at all costs, they will engage in the activities following a schedule set by teachers. Of course, coffee and lunchtime will never be disrupted.
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We will negotiate the starting date with your school. We need about 10 weeks to do phases 1, 2 and 3. It starts with Garda Vetting, meanwhile, we will send parents' consent forms. After that, we will have step 1 (which takes 7 to 10 days), followed by the intervention (5 weeks) and after that post-intervention assessment (mores 7 to 10 days). For example, if we start next week on the 3rd of October, we will estimate to finish steps1, 2 and 3 by the 5th of December, if no further delays are in place (e.g., Halloween). Step 4 would take place in Jan/Feb.
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5. What are the expectations of the class teacher, whose class/pupils are involved?
A member of our team will conduct some activities with students during class under the teacher's supervision. Teachers’ collaboration is important to engage students in the activities as the
representative authority of the school. But there is no pressure that the teacher must be there for the entire 45 minutes.
In addition to that, teachers will be asked to answer a brief questionnaire, one per class, to have their perspective on the class engagement with learning mathematics and basic demographics such as gender, age, and years of teaching experience.
We will ask teachers to answer this questionnaire at three different time points: baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. The teachers’ questionnaire was designed to avoid the risk of inconvenience; thus, it will take ≈10 min to be completed each time.
This questionnaire would allow us to compare if the experience changed students' and teachers’ perspectives and if these changes were persistent.
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6. What involvement is required of parents?
Parents/carers/legal guardians must consent to children’s participation in the study.
They will be asked to respond to the online consent form and sociodemographic questionnaire via
Qualtrics before the start of the data collection. It takes 10 minutes, brief items, for instance, to inform us if a child has a disability or any special need to engage in the project.
Because the assessment takes place in three moments, we may contact parents/legal guardians by email to remind them of the week we will be assessing children at their school during the study
steps. Email is required if the school does not wish to be the point of contact, otherwise, we can skip this step.
We also know that some parents barely familiar with computers/mobile phone apps will need paper and pencil responses which could be sent through the child or arranged in person at the school or via phone call according to their preferred option.
We do not want or need their contact for any other reason and this info will be deleted once data collection is completed.
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7. GDPR considerations
The data collected from this research project will be kept confidential. Any information about the participants will have a number on it instead of their names.
Only the main researcher will know the association between the number and the child’s name. This info will be stored in an encrypted and password-protected laptop, completely separated from the other files related to the study. After the completion of the study, any sensitive information will be completely erased.
Data from all participants, without any identifying information, will then be stored in a single file for statistical analysis purposes and future use by the current research team.
Other researchers who may join the team in the future, and other verified independent researchers will never get access to the name-number association. Also, the file will have the schools codified
as numbers, so no person could track a child from a particular school.