An experiment is presented in which several digital entertainment games were selected and used with primary school students to foster the development of visuospatial skills. The experiment is part of a group of research aimed at studying whether and how game based activities foster basic skills needed for STEM studies. According to our initial hypothesis, training visuospatial skills via digital gameplay should have a positive impact on the students' school results in math, measured with a standardised test. Results confirmed the hypothesis: students who systematically played the games as part of their school activities reached statistically higher results in maths when compared to others from the same school who simply followed the normal school activities. The project has also yielded indications for future research, showing that students are much more interested and involved in those activities that are more creative and leave then more freedom.
Si presenta un esperimento nel quale vengono utilizzati svariati giochi digitali a sostegno dello sviluppo delle abilità visuospaziali negli studenti degli ultimi due anni della scuola primaria. L'esperimento si colloca in una linea di ricerca che indaga l'utilizzo di giochi digitali non specificatamente realizzati per scopi educativi per favorire il potenziamento di alcune abilità di base per la matematica e le materie scientifiche Secondo l'ipotesi di partenza, un miglioramento delle abilità visuospaziali avrebbe dovuto influenzare positivamente i risultati scolastici in matematica, misurati con un test standardizzato sulla popolazione italiana in età scolare. I risultati ottenuti confermano l'ipotesi iniziale: gli studenti che hanno seguito le attività di gioco hanno ottenuto risultati statisticamente migliori rispetto a coloro che hanno, invece, seguito il normale corso scolastico. L'esperimento ha anche fornito indicazioni per orientare la ricerca futura, evidenziando un maggior coinvolgimento ed interesse dei ragazzi nelle attività più creative, che lasciavano loro maggior libertà.
PLAYING GAMES TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF VISUOSPATIAL ABILITIES
Laura Freina;Rosa Bottino
2019
Abstract
An experiment is presented in which several digital entertainment games were selected and used with primary school students to foster the development of visuospatial skills. The experiment is part of a group of research aimed at studying whether and how game based activities foster basic skills needed for STEM studies. According to our initial hypothesis, training visuospatial skills via digital gameplay should have a positive impact on the students' school results in math, measured with a standardised test. Results confirmed the hypothesis: students who systematically played the games as part of their school activities reached statistically higher results in maths when compared to others from the same school who simply followed the normal school activities. The project has also yielded indications for future research, showing that students are much more interested and involved in those activities that are more creative and leave then more freedom.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.