Janet Tassell

Using video game play to improve education-majors' mathematical performance

We examined relationship between enhanced attentional capabilities and math performance.Action video games were used to enhance attentional and working memory capabilities.Education-majors participated in two studies.Videogame play improved mental rotation, working memory, and geometry performance.Expert AVGers had higher working memory, spatial, and geometry skills than non-gamers. Action video games (AVGs) is an effective way to improve attentional capabilities that are important for academic foundations. The present research sought to establish a link between enhanced attentional capabilities and mathematics performance and anxiety in education-majors. We examined group differences between experienced and inexperienced AVGers and the effects of AVG practice on mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety as mediated by the effect of attention on working memory. Our first experiment showed that expert AVGers had significantly higher working memory, spatial, and geometry abilities than non-gamers. In Experiment 2, undergraduates without prior AVG experience were randomly assigned to play either an AVG (Unreal Tournament 2004) or a non-AVG (Angry Birds). After 10h of video game practice, both intervention groups significantly improved their mental rotation skills, working memory and geometry performance from pre- to post-test, closely approaching the average cognitive performance of expert AVGers. Furthermore, student cognitive load significantly decreased from pre- to post-test for both groups. Our results suggest that both an AVG and a popular non-AVG, Angry Birds, can improve cognitive abilities. Implications for using the games to enhance cognitive skills are discussed.

Improving Preservice Teacher Preparation through the Teacher Work Sample: Exploring Assessment and Analysis of Student Learning

Abstract This study focuses on the Renaissance Teacher Work Samples critical sections Assessment Plan and Analysis of Student Learning. Preliminary review of scoring data based on the sample revealed that preservice teachers at a large comprehensive institution teacher program appeared to be most challenged with designing assessments and analyzing student learning, compared to other sections. Further analysis of multiple sources of data related to these skills—including deeper study of the student teacher performance on the sample, student-teaching evaluation proficiency rates, self-reported scores on teacher standards, and Praxis scores—indicated that all intersected with the same theme: Relatively low areas for this institutions preservice teachers in assessment and analysis. Based on these results, institutional efforts to improve student performance in this area are addressed.

Examining the Relationship Between Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics and Professional Noticing Capacities

The goal of this study was to examine the changes in preservice elementary teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics in connection with their participation in a module aimed at developing professional noticing capacities. This module, implemented in 11 mathematics methods courses at five institutions, involved practice with three interrelated components of professional noticing—attending, interpreting, and deciding. Pre- and post-assessments of participants’ mathematical attitudes and professional noticing capacities were administered to measure change in these areas. Professional noticing measures were modeled from a similar study by Jacobs et al. (Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 41: 169–202, 2010). The Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (Tapia and Marsh, Academic Exchange Quarterly 8: 16–21, 2004) was used to measure change in attitudes during the pre- and post-administrations. Participants demonstrated significant growth in professional noticing capabilities and significant growth on three of four factors of the Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory; however, there was no significant correlation between the changes on the respective measures.

Video Game Play, Mathematics, Spatial Skills, and Creativity—A Study of the Impact on Teacher Candidates

This chapter explores the relationships among video gaming, spatial skills and creativity in mathematics education. Specifically, it highlights the importance of spatial abilities for pre-service elementary teachers, and suggests video games as a teaching approach for potentially enhancing creativity, spatial abilities, and mathematics performance. We argue that spatial abilities deserve more attention in mathematics education, as a major predictor of achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical fields. To support this notion, we describe an experimental study that examined the effects of playing the Angry Birds and Action Video recreational video games on education majors’ math problem-solving and perceptions, math anxiety, working memory, and spatial skills. Individuals with high spatial abilities had significantly higher confidence in learning mathematics, ACT mathematics, science, composite scores, as well as geometry, word, and non-word math problem solving than individuals with low spatial abilities. In addition, students with low spatial abilities had significantly higher math anxiety. After ten hours of playing, both video game intervention groups significantly improved their spatial skills, working memory, and geometry performance from pre- to post-test. These findings suggest potential impact of video gaming in mathematics education and open new horizons for future research that explores how schools and homes working together with strategic gaming plans can help students improve their spatial reasoning and problem solving. The chapter concludes with future research suggestions on spatial abilities and creativity in mathematics education.

The Create Excellence Framework’s Impact on Enhancing Creativity: Examining Elementary Teacher Candidate Mathematics Lesson Planning

The focus of this research is to examine the impact of an instructional instrument to improve the quality of pre-service teachers’ lesson plans to enhance creative learning opportunities for children. The Create Excellence Framework focuses on four components essential to high-quality lesson plans: Cognitive Complexity, Real-World Learning, Engagement, and Technology Integration. The research study examined data from two elementary education teacher candidate classes for five semesters to measure the impact of the instrument on instructional planning for mathematics or mathematics and science integration. Over the course of the five semesters, for each component, the mean scores increased, and there was a positive statistically significant difference between the scores from the baseline semester to the fifth semester. In the fifth semester, the component of Technology Integration had the largest increase and Real-World Learning has the highest mean score. As students learned to design instruction around authentic tasks, cognitive levels and engagement also increased. Students were exposed to and utilizing new digital tools to enhance their learning. Using these digital tools along with real-world applications of the content encouraged students to think creatively to solve authentic problems.