Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2019, Educational Psychology

Today professions and post-secondary opportunities in the United States in the areas of science, technology, and engineering are continuously growing and requiring students to have complex understandings of mathematical concepts. As the demand for these professions continues to grow, mathematic achievement scores in the U.S. continue to decline. The current study seeks to examine if an alternative to explicit instruction, such as play, through a multiplication fluency game, can improve mathematic motivation and multiplicative fluency. Students in two third grade classrooms were given pre and posttest curriculum-based fluency tests and surveys focused on their attitude toward math to compare results between the treatment and control classrooms. The treatment classroom played a multiplication fluency game for three days a week for four weeks while the control classroom engaged in traditional instruction. Results were examined qualitatively and quantitatively to conclude that the play intervention appears to have no significance when compared to instruction without a fluency game on mathematical fluency scores.

Committee: Sarah Watt (Committee Chair); Doris Bergen (Committee Member); Brooke Spangler-Cropenbaker (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Psychology; Mathematics; Mathematics Education

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2010, Honors Theses

“How can I get my students to read?” is a question frequently asked by educators when dealing with 21st century students. In this article, I review current literature based around using video games as a pedagogical tool. Topics looked at include the decline of interest in reading, the rise in student comfort with technology, the ability for video games to increase intrinsic motivation, how the larger fields of reading, motivation, and video games form the reasoning for this research, and benefits from previous research. Primary research is also discussed; 20 students from Ohio Dominican University participated in a study where they played the video game The Hobbit (2003) to see whether they would be motivated to read the book The Hobbit (1937). Due to lack of subject feedback, quantitative results were limited, but qualitative results were found. None of the subjects were regular gamers, but two to of the five subjects to play the game and respond to a survey did read some of the book after playing the game. While this is stastically insignificant, it does provide reason to continue research in this field with a re-designed and larger study.

Committee: Marlissa Stauffer PhD (Advisor); Valerie Staton PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Language Arts; Teaching