Supporting Teaching and Learning in Mathematics through Games

SUPPORTING TEACHING AND LEARNING IN MATHEMATICS
Student's Name
Course Name
Professor's Name
University Name
City, State
Date
Introduction
Games in academic and home settings create a background for developing pupils' mathematical understanding and reasoning. Students can acquire computational fluency by playing and analysing games, assessing the efficient approaches, and discussing how the numbers relate. The best way for pupils to reflect on their thinking and guess or make predictions mathematically is by developing prompt questions. Similarly, modifying the game to consider the learner's needs promotes their ability to apply the underlying principles for mathematical practice. Therefore, this work aims to develop a game that will facilitate students' use and application of mathematics. Similarly, this work will critically analyse the use of the game within the pupil's setting.
Game Name and Description (DaMath Checker Board Game)
The goal of this game is to have the most points at the end of the game. A chessboard can be used for this game. Two players and 12 bottle caps are needed for each player. The 24 bottle caps will be numbered, and the board will be marked by plus (+) and minus (-) signs where the bottle caps will be placed. The 12 bottle caps of one player will be placed facing down while the other 12 (that of the opponent) will be facing up. It is just the same as playing the Dama board game. The only difference is that the bottle caps are numbered. Suppose the taker uses his bottle cap numbered 5 to take the opponent's bottle cap numbered 6 and lands on the board tile with an addition sign; the taker will add five and six, and then his score will become eleven. If the opponent with a bottle cap numbered 12 then takes his bottle cap numbered 10 and lands on the board tile with the subtraction (-) sign, his score will be only 2, and the game will be finished when the one of the players has no more bottle caps. The one with the highest score will be the winner.
The Years that the Game Aims and Why
The game aims at grade 3 students to ensure that they attain a high level of competence in mathematics before they proceed to middle school. Thus, the pupils stand a chance of acquiring fundamental concepts and facts in numerical skills concerning their stage of learning. In other words, the students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject rather than memorise critical methods to solve problems in the subject. The game requires a high level of attention and concentration, a skill that can help keep focus when they attend the advanced stage of learning. The game involves complex procedures as the player needs to concentrate and have a strategy to take a bottle cap with a high number and land on the board tile with a plus (+) sign.
The game also targets grade 3 pupils as its engaging capability will build their confidence to solve arithmetic as fast as possible. According to Kankia (2008), mathematics classes experience is full of talking and writing, contributing to poor attitude and low-performance outcomes. On the same note, most pupils have developed hatred and fear for the subject, particularly when they can't understand the symbols, formulae, and signs used in class (Orim & Ekwueme, 2011). Inclusion of the mathematical games while teaching the pupils will make them experts, thus promoting their analysis and discussion on the subject. In addition, the game targets grade 3 students as it intends to help them develop a positive attitude toward mathematics which will help promote their understanding in the next level of education.
The Prior knowledge of the Game is Built on
According to Gibbs and Simpson (2005), assessing the pupils' prior knowledge allows the teacher and the student to allocate their energies meaningful and productive. Childhood experiences with numbers during the early schooling or at-home settings form the basis for mathematical skills acquisition in their later learning stages (Kermani, 2017). Therefore, the game based its design on pre-existing knowledge or understanding to ensure that all students gain from the competition. The game considered that the children have developed some communication skills to facilitate their interaction with their peers. Griffin (2004) states that young children begin adopting number sense in the early stage of life by interacting with materials such as pictures, symbols, words, and objects under the guidance of their parents, sibling, and peers. The game also came into being by considering that the students had basic knowledge or numeracy skills that would make them attempt or successfully play the game. For instance, the game assumes that each child would be able to calculate mentally during the play.
Wang and Hung (2010) suggest that young people start to comprehend the meaning and correlation among the numbers during play and stimulated interaction with their surroundings. The authors further suggest that children also recognise the size of the digits, measure events and objects, and consider figures as sensible systems. Clement and Sarama (2016) also suggest that children acquire mathematical skills when they are young due to their daily activities. Therefore, the early numeracy skill development is a strong indicator of the pupils' later mathematical games accomplishment. The research also assumed that the elementary students having passed through Kindergarten would have acquired mathematical skills such as addition techniques to help them manage to play the game.
Based on the early mathematical skills, Jung and Conderman (2013), teachers should ensure that students develop early numeracy skills by playing with concrete learning resources and objects to promote the learning of new skills. The author further suggests that using concepts and ideas associated with spatial and number sense, estimation, and patterns are useful in promoting student learning. Another premise used for designing the game was the level of understanding of the concepts we already learned or areas on which we felt the students needed improvement. It was seen fit that to improve critical thinking; the pupils should be able to think how to land on the board tile where they will gain the most points.
For instance, the students are already capable of identifying and pronouncing the figures, so the study did not incorporate the concept of fluency into the game (Larsen-Freeman, 2006). Thus, prior knowledge of the students' skills based on their pre-existing talent and knowing what they can achieve during the play helped us craft the game. The goal was to strengthen their potential and ensure their weaknesses were acknowledged and addressed.
The Role of the Game in Promoting Mathematical Learning Inside and Outside the Classroom
The DaMath Board Game promotes learning of mathematics as it motivates the pupils to participate in the activity actively, and thus, they have control in the process (Orim & Ekwueme, 2011). According to appendix 2, every pupil is involved in the game, thus ensuring that no one is left behind. On the same note, the game provides the balance between luck and skill to sustain all the participants' engagement and interest. For instance, based on appendix 1, the game results come as a matter of one's mental ability and depend on some luck. Therefore, weak students are encouraged to play as they are confident; they can also win and eventually learn.
According to Russo et al. (2018), the mathematical games that only contain based-skill aspects to determine the winner allow the bright st...