Abstract

Video game use is widespread among all age groups, from young children to older adults. The wide variety of video game genres, which are adapted to all tastes and needs, is one of the factors that makes them so attractive. In many cases, video games function as an outlet for stress associated with everyday life by providing an escape from reality. We took advantage of this recreational aspect of video games when investigating whether there are similarities between the procedures used to pass a video game level and those used to solve a mathematical problem. Moreover, we also questioned whether the use of video games can reduce the negative emotions generated by mathematical problems and logical–mathematical knowledge in general. To verify this, we used the Portal 2 video game as a research method or tool. This video game features concepts from the spatial–geometric field that the students must identify and relate in order to carry out the procedures required to solve challenges in each level. The procedures were recorded in a questionnaire that was separated into two blocks of content in order to compare them with the procedures used to solve mathematical problems. The first block pertains to the procedures employed and the second block to the emotions that the students experienced when playing the video game and when solving a mathematical problem. The results reveal that the recreational aspect of video games is more important than the educational aspect. However, the students were not aware of using the problem-solving procedures they learned at school to solve different challenges in the video games. Furthermore, overcoming video game challenges stimulates positive emotions as opposed to the negative emotions generated when solving mathematical problems.

Highlights

  • Current technological developments emerge in all social, cultural, and educational contexts

  • McGonigal [1] states that a video game must be based on the premise of overcoming a challenge and being motivated to do so

  • To verify if the mathematical problem-solving procedures used by students are similar to those they use to pass a level of a video game

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Summary

Introduction

Current technological developments emerge in all social, cultural, and educational contexts. Problem-solving can be applied to the field of mathematics as well as to aspects of daily life: when people encounter situations that require a solution in their daily lives, they unconsciously apply the problem-solving method they learned in school. In this manner, mathematical competence is developed through problem-solving exercises. Mathematical competence goes beyond procedural knowledge; it is manifested in the use of conceptual knowledge in different practical situations. In view of this definition of mathematical competence, it could be stated that video games are included in these non-mathematical contexts. Various studies describe the use of these elements in the classroom—for example, using the Angry Birds video game to develop mathematical knowledge [4–6] or physical knowledge [7–11]

Problem-Solving
Video Games for Problem-Solving
Research Questions and Objectives
Objective
Population and Sample
Method
Free play
15 Dura2t0ion
Data Analysis
Results and Discussion
J21-Type Player
J31-Type Player

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