Interactive games and the mathematics achievement of grade eight students

Abstract

Facing today’s breed of students actually demands more dedicated efforts and attention. This is due to many factors that affect the students’ behavior towards education. Their attention is easily distracted as they are exposed to different cultures and mindsets regarding schooling in different levels. Being the agent of change of today’s generation, teachers should incorporate interactive games, hands-on investigation and different teaching strategies that will open doors to learning experiences of the students every day. It will motivate them to learn by encouraging them to perform better and achieve higher goals in mathematics. Keeping in mind what Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” Learning mathematics through interactive games will lessen their fear towards the subject and even improve their academic achievement. The main aim of this study was to find out whether or not there is an effect of interactive games on the academic achievement in mathematics among the grade 8 students. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What are the pretest score of the control and experimental groups before the implementation of the interactive games in teaching Mathematics? 2. What are the posttest score of the control and experimental groups before the implementation of the interactive games in teaching Mathematics? 3. Is there a significant difference in the posttest scores of the students in the control and experimental group after use of interactive games in teaching Mathematics? Hypothesis: There is no significant difference in the posttest scores of the students in the control and experimental after the use of interactive games in teaching Mathematics. 4. What is the effect size of interactive games to the mathematics achievement of the students? The researcher used the experimental design, specifically pretest - posttest design to determine whether the use of interactive games in teaching mathematics will improve the performance of the students. This method evaluated the difference between the mean scores of the control group and the experimental group whether the result will be significant or not. The population of this study was the grade 8 students in the Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) Program of the Baguio City National High School, school year 2017- 2018. The researcher used teacher-made tests in the form of achievement tests to gather data. The data were used in determining the level of mathematics achievement of the students using the interactive games. The following are the major findings of the study: 1. The mean scores of the control and experimental groups in the pretest are both fairly satisfactory. 2. The mean scores of control group in the posttest is very satisfactory while the mean scores of the experimental group is outstanding. 3. There is a significant difference in the posttest scores of the students in the control and experimental group after the implementation of the interactive games in teaching Mathematics. 4. The interactive games yielded a very large effect. In light of the findings of the study, the following are the conclusions: 1. The students have inadequate knowledge and skill in mathematical concepts. 2. The experimental group has mastery of the lessons while the control group still lacks mastery in some concepts. 3. Students exposed to interactive games have performed better than students exposed to the usual drill method. 4. The integration of the interactive games in teaching mathematics remarkably improves the mathematics achievement of the students. In relation with the findings and conclusions of this research, the following are recommended: 1. The teachers need to integrate the use of interactive games in teaching the lessons in mathematics to help the students develop their social and mathematical skills. 2. Teachers may adopt the compilation of the different interactive games with lesson exemplars and their uses as presented in the Appendix J and H for more engaging teaching and learning process in mathematics. 3. Seminar-workshops on the effective use of interactive games in teaching should be provided by school heads and administrators. 4. The possibility of undertaking similar studies using interactive games in other disciplines can be considered.