Digital Games as Tools for Enhancing Statistics Instruction in the Early Years: A Teaching Intervention Within a Grade 2 Mathematics Classroom

摘要

Digital games hold a lot of promise as tools for improving mathematics and statistics instruction in the early school years. The current article presents a case study that explored the potential of well-designed, mobile educational game apps for enhancing early statistics education. A teaching intervention took place in a rural Grade 2 (ages 7-8) primary classroom in Cyprus, which aimed to integrate mobile game apps Electric Company Prankster Planet and Kahoot! within the mathematics curriculum, so as to support learning of key ideas related to data collection, analysis and tabular and graphical representation. The main insights gained from the study indicate that appropriate exploitation of digital games can motivate young children and help them internalize important concepts related to data analysis and probability.