Children are born with an intrinsic motivation to play games. Over the past decade, educational video games have invaded mainstream classroom instruction and researchers are “considering how games might be used in pursuit of engaging, effective learning experiences� (Squire and Jenkins, 2003). This research encompasses designing math games using a constructivist and embodied cognition pedagogy in an effort to answer the question: “Will overlapping wearable technology and mathematical objectives with traditional children’s games show improved efficacy in students’ math skills and increase students’ motivation to learn math in 4th thru 6th grade students?� Methods of research include a usability study and four subsequent iterative studies to improve the game and the technology, measuring students’ math self-efficacy and motivation to learn math. The final goal of this thesis is to design, test and document an engaging children’s math learning game using wearable technology that requires active physical experiences while involved in deep thinking and complex problem solving (Gee, 2003) within real world environments, beyond classrooms, pencil and paper, and even beyond traditional computer games in front of a computer screen.

A sociedade necessita cada vez mais de pessoas aptas a interagir com o conhecimento de maneira ativa e participativa. Nesse sentido, aprender é adquirir vivências e estabelecer uma dialética entre conhecimento e sujeito. Para que se formem cidadãos capazes dessa tarefa, é necessário um sistema de ensino pautado na construção de habilidades e competências, não apenas específicas às disciplinas, mas também no trabalho em equipe. Porém os resultados de avaliações externas, como SARESP e PISA, mostram que é necessária uma mudança no sistema educacional Brasileiro, uma vez que nossos alunos não têm demonstrado bons resultados. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho utiliza como metodologia de ensino dois jogos pedagógicos, sendo um de estratégia e outro de conhecimento, respectivamente: \"Baralho Trigonométrico\" criado pelo professor-pesquisador e \"Trigonometrilha\" proposto por Smole (2008). O projeto foi aplicado, nos anos de 2015, 2016 e 2017, em uma escola pública do estado de São Paulo a alunos do 2° ano do ensino médio. Em todos os anos foi realizada a avaliação diagnósticas (préteste e pós-teste). As atividades dos jogos foram realizadas em grupo e a metodologia foi aplicada em duas sequências diferentes, seguida de análise de conteúdo. Foi possível verificar, a partir dos resultados da avaliação diagnostica que mesmo com as turmas não avançando de forma proporcional, seus índices de acertos no pós-teste aumentaram principalmente em questões relacionadas diretamente aos conteúdos utilizados nos jogos. Sendo que a média de acertos passou de 29% para 63% em 2015, de 30% para 49% em 2016 e de 20% para 31% em 2017, reforçando o fato que os jogos são uma importante ferramenta para o ensino. / From an active and participatory means of communication. In this sense, learning is to acquire experiences and establish a dialectic between knowledge and subject. In order for people to become familiar with this task, a system of teaching in the area of skills and competences is needed, not only in the disciplines, but there is also no teamwork. The results of the second, as well as the SARESP and the PISA, were presented as an educational program, since our students do not have good results. In this sense, the present work was based on two pedagogical games, one of strategy and another of knowledge, mainly: \"Trigonometric Deck\" created by the teacher-researcher and \"Trigonometrilha\" by Smole (2008). The project was applied, in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, in a public school in the state of São Paulo, a second year of high school. In all years a diagnostic evaluation (pre-test and posttest) was performed. The game rules were applied in a group and the methodology was applied in two different sequences, followed by a content analysis. It was possible to verify, from the results of the evaluation of the same level of groups of proportional form, their indices of performance in the post-test increased substantially in relation to the expenses of the games. The average number of hits increased from 29% to 63% in 2015, from 30% to 49% in 2016 and from 20% to 31% in 2017, reinforcing what games are an important teaching tool.

Many scientific domains deal with abstract and multidimensional phenomena, and students often struggle to comprehend theoretical and complex abstractions and apply scientific concepts to real life contexts (Anderson & Barnett, 2013). One of these scientific domains that impose theoretical and complex abstractions is physics. The way that physics has traditionally been taught in school is through learning mathematical formulas and equations (Price, 2008). Many researchers proposed several ways to teach physics effectively. There are several virtual reality applications and computer games that were designed and utilized in the area of science education. In the case of physics education, many studies yielded positive results when using computer games to teach abstract concepts to students (Maxmen, 2010; Price, 2008; Squire et al., 2004). Furthermore, both physical and virtual manipulative tools were shown to be effective and essential in physics learning. This study examined the effects of manipulation of virtual objects in a game-like environment when supplemented with a descriptive or a narrative lesson in the context of physics concepts related to force, distance, and conservation of energy. In particular, the study examined learners’ performance on a test of physics knowledge related to the study when encountered with two factors that influence learning: lesson type and type of manipulation. The study drew on the research done on using virtual manipulatives in education and theoretical support from constructivist theories of learning implying that learners form their own knowledge through meaningful interactions with the world, and that prior knowledge greatly influences the construction of new knowledge in individual learners (Barbour et al., 2009; Bruner, 1966). From the study’s results, it seems that providing a textual pre-lesson is important for low-prior knowledge learners when it comes to learning physics concepts. Moreover, having engaged in a manipulation task also contributed to participants’ learning gain (in both low-prior knowledge and high-prior knowledge groups) as measured by the post-assessments used in this study. Moreover, the results from this study help inform educational game designers who incorporate manipulatives about the role of providing pre-lessons that tie to concepts targeted by the manipulation activity, and how different kinds of manipulation in a game-like environment affect learning outcomes. The findings suggest that the role of these two factors combined requires further research.

Society has consistently sought means of improving extant effective tools and designing new effective tools for educational purposes. With the consistent progression of technology, mathematical games—especially mathematical educational video games—stand out as potentially powerful mediums for helping new mathematics learners make sense of formal mathematical ideas. The aim of this study was to understand the effects that the introduction and use of a specific mathematical video game had for the cognitive, affective, and content-retentive learning outcomes of eighth graders studying elementary algebra for the first time. The three research questions guiding the study were the following: 1) How does integrating mathematical game play into a traditional eighth grade algebra curriculum impact students' cognitive learning outcomes in elementary algebra?; 2) How does integrating mathematical game play into a traditional eighth grade algebra curriculum impact students' affective outcomes about both mathematics in general and algebra specifically?; 3) How does integrating mathematical game play into a traditional eighth grade algebra curriculum impact students' content retention in elementary algebra? In order to realistically implement mathematical educational games in typical mathematics classrooms, a holistic understanding of such games’ effects must be understood through research addressing several aspects of students’ learning experiences. This study utilized a mixed methodology, drawing both quantitative and qualitative data from instruments administered to a class of eighth graders split into control and treatment groups. Quantitative data primarily entailed a series of three short examinations that tested students on their algebraic equation-solving content knowledge. Some additional metrics from game play data were recorded and discussed as quantitative data by the principal researcher. Qualitative data primarily entailed two series of interviews—one in two parts and one in three parts—and one questionnaire. Some additional observations of student interactions were also recorded and discussed as qualitative data by the principal researcher. Data on student cognition and student affect were collected at the beginning, middle, and end of the treatment. Data on student content retention were collected following a one-month recess after the treatment. This research suggests nine attributes that typified the mathematical game play experience found in this study: three attributes regarded student cognition, four attributes regarded student affect, and two attributes regarded student content retention. Additionally, the principal researcher designed and discussed a framework for assessing the cognitive mappings formed by student game players between content featured in mathematical game play and content of formal mathematical ideas. In analyzing these mappings, the principal researcher highlighted types of interspatial cognitive connections that proved to be either fruitless or, in fact, detrimental to student game players, damaging proper development and/or understanding of formal mathematical ideas. The study’s results have implications for informing future considerations of educational game design and the practical implementation of educational games as pedagogical tools within classrooms.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-11T11:13:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Tadeu Rosente Rios.pdf: 559953 bytes, checksum: aef74bce413662d03ea02596d5b00094 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-11T11:13:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Tadeu Rosente Rios.pdf: 559953 bytes, checksum: aef74bce413662d03ea02596d5b00094 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-20 / This research aims to study the development of gamified interfaces for bilingual literacy for deaf children, with LIBRAS as their first language and Portuguese as the second language. The study on the deaf individual was motivated by the need to know better the characteristics of the target audience of this research. We ought to explore the definition of deafness, how we classify hearing loss and the deaf individual, and the characteristics of this individual, especially children, in the emotional aspects, focus and attention, and acquisition of vocabulary. The research also has the focus of studying the process of bilingual literacy of the deaf subject and the difficulties presented during the learning. Also in this context, we seek to investigate the education and the bilingual literacy process of deaf children and to point out the main characteristics and difficulties in the teaching and learning of LIBRAS as first language and Portuguese as a second language. In a second moment, the research brings to the discussion the analysis and the application of gamification within the school context. We study the application of gamification within this teaching environment, trying to understand the difficulties, needs and effective learning opportunities that the use of games can provide. Finally, we propose a reflection on the influence of the use of these technologies on the behavior and social relation of the deaf individuals, as well as the survey of the main educational technologies developed exclusively for mobile devices with the intention of teaching LIBRAS. Also in this context, through the analysis of the researched material, we try to discuss and suggest some best practices for the development of educational game interfaces for this target audience / Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de estudar o desenvolvimento de interfaces gamificadas para o letramento bilíngue para crianças surdas, tendo a LIBRAS como primeira língua, e o português como a segunda língua. O estudo sobre o indivíduo surdo foi motivado pela necessidade de conhecer melhor as características do público alvo desta pesquisa. Procuramos explorar a definição de surdez, o modo como classificamos a deficiência auditiva e o indivíduo surdo, e as características desse indivíduo, principalmente as crianças, nos aspectos emocionais, de foco e atenção e aquisição de vocabulário, por meio dos trabalhos de Santos e Molon. A pesquisa observa também o processo de letramento bilíngue do sujeito surdo e as dificuldades apresentadas durante o aprendizado, e neste contexto, procura investigar a educação e o processo de letramento bilíngue de crianças surdas, apontando para as principais características e dificuldades no ensino e aprendizagem de LIBRAS como primeira língua e o português como segunda língua, tendo como base Sales et al. Em um segundo momento, a pesquisa traz à discussão a análise e a aplicação da gamificação dentro do contexto escolar. Assim, estudamos a aplicação da gamificação dentro deste ambiente de ensino, procurando entender as dificuldades, necessidades e oportunidades efetivas de aprendizagem que o uso dos games podem proporcionar, explorando os trabalhos de Prietch e Korte, Poter e Nielsen. Por fim, propomos uma reflexão sobre a influência do uso dessas tecnologias no comportamento e na relação social dos indivíduos surdos, fazemos um levantamento de tecnologias educacionais desenvolvidas exclusivamente para dispositivos móveis com o intuito de ensinar LIBRAS, para finalmente sugerir algumas melhores práticas para o desenvolvimento de interfaces de jogos educativos para este público-alvo

Effective learning models adopt a highly structured approach for introductory topics, then provide students more freedom as topics increase in depth and complexity. The structure guides beginning students with rapid, appropriate feedback and provides a framework that can be expanded later with extra flexibility that encourages students to flesh out the basic framework with trial and error. This trial and error phase would also be more effective with informative feedback but providing copious feedback on open-ended problems is only feasible with a small student-to-teacher ratio or with the help of e-learning. Training engineers involves introducing many complex topics and the educational costs are high, making the use of e-learning an important training opportunity. This project introduced a novel e-learning system to engineering students in an introductory course. An experiment compared a highly structured electronic game with a more traditional, flipped classroom teaching approach. The novel learning method is intended to engage students with a consistent cognitive load as they progress through increasingly difficult learning experiences within the MySQL database querying language. Performance was measured with a post-task exercise. Task load was measured using an unweighted NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). The two cohorts experienced both learning methods in two training sessions in opposite order. In the first session, participants in the current learning method group outperformed the participants in the game group (a score of 95.78 versus 93.94), but the second session was a reverse of these results (92.79 and 95.76). The task load indices also follow this pattern, with participants in the current group recording a lower task load than the game group in session one and a higher load in session two. However, as the training progressed in each session the task load increased less for the game group than for the current group, indicating that the game group experienced a more consistent task load, as expected. The game tended to extend the time that students stayed at a comfortable but challenging cognitive load, while the students in current training group experienced more periods of very low or very high cognitive load. This consistent task load may be responsible for the game producing better results on the more difficult content of the second week. We expect that as the game techniques improve, this will lead to more consistently efficient learning acquisition. We expect that the general technique may be adapted to other training areas, yielding broader educational efficiency.

This study explores suitable applications of culturalization in the case of educational games for children, specifically in relation to the Chinese market. Culturalization, in the context of video games, are design choices and adjustments applied to a product in order to cater to the needs of different cultural environments. The characteristics of both this genre, and this target locale, determines to which aspects of the product culturalization should be applied. Using three commercial educational games as a basis for discussion, the research was conducted through a series of expert interviews with pedagogues, localizers and game researchers in China. By analyzing the data gathered through these interviews, a series of aspects to consider for culturalization was defined. These were: usage of cultural references; the branding of the product; educational utility in relation to the local school curriculum; choice of gamification design.

Physically Interactive Games (PIGs) have emerged as a new game genre and potential as an educational tool in classrooms. In PIGs, children are allowed to interact with game environment and solving problems by using their bodily movements and voices without using mouse or keyboard by being active physically and cognitively. Designing PIGs is critical and difficult process because it is vital that educational content and entertainment parts of a game should be balanced properly considering interaction between children and game environment. The current dissertation aims to explore principles of designing and developing physically interactive educational games for children. Mainly, qualitative data collection techniques were used in the study. Also, Reeves&rsquo / Development Research Model was administered under the Design-Based Research. Both Mathematics and Physical Education subjects were integrated within the game environments. Totally four physically interactive games were designed and developed. During the design and development phases, field experts, subject-matter experts and children&rsquo / s expectations, needs and recommendations were taken into account. During the development phase, 5 teachers with 3 Mathematics and 2 Physical Education teachers as subject matter experts participated to the study. Also, 10 v children with 5 boys and 5 girls participated to the design phase. In the implementation phase, 30 children with 17 boys and 13 girls participated in Pilot Implementation and 50 children with 27 boys and 23 girls participated to the Final Implementation phase. The study revealed that camera screen was the main deterministic factor in order to play physically interactive educational games properly. Girls and boys had different considerations about the developed games. The bigger camera screen physically interactive games had, the higher motivation children had during gameplay. At the end of the study, design principles of physically interactive educational games were defined.

This Thesis explores the application of Tangible User Interfaces to Education. For this, a research study was conducted by building and testing an interactive game called Tangram Bridge. This Tangram based game was designed to teach players about basic physics principles such as balance, friction and motion on inclined planes. The focus of this Tangram Bridge is middle school physics, and therefore concerns children aged 11 years and up, their instructors and care givers. This research also lays a lot of emphasis on constructive play amongst children. Tangram Bridge is a versatile platform that can be scaled for younger or older populations A comparative study of existing Tangible User Interfaces ( TUIs) revealed opportunity spaces for this project. Through a compilation of related research in the fields of education, hands on learning, Tangible interaction and understanding play and learning amongst children, the constructionist views on learning are explored as guidelines for the design of this study. Through the analysis of comparative research studies, trends on TUI with relation to education emerged, informing the design process for Tangram Bridge. This research study discusses the application of Tangible user interfaces to education. It combines the research data collected through market research, user testing and literature reviews to explore the efficacy of TUI as teaching tool for abstract concepts that require imagination and experimentation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.