So the kids are busy, what now? Teacher perceptions of the use of hand-held game consoles in West Australian primary classrooms

Abstract

Games technology in the form of hand-held game consoles (HGCs) when focussed on specific academic skill development has the capacity to engage students in learning and in turn produce positive academic results. This current research explores teacher perceptions of the implementation of HGCs to enhance the development of mental maths skills (namely the recall of single digit addition, subtraction and multiplication sums) in nine Year 4 classrooms and, through a series of structured interviews and observations, categorises these educators in terms of their role in the classroom. It was hypothesised that the teaching style would impact on the student's motivation and engagement when using the HGCs, however, it became evident that by maintaining set classroom structures the HGCs appeared to have the capacity to engage and motivate students, regardless of the approach of the teacher.

Technology in the Classroom: Improving Automaticity in Mental-maths in Primary-aged Students

“…As with much change, some classroom practitioners understandably lament for lessons past, or as Tapscott (2009, p. 128) points out in his exploration of learning in schools for students of the 'net-generation'; "old paradigms die hard". A report on digital games in the classroom found that teachers who played digital games for pleasure were much more likely to use digital games in their classrooms than those who did not (Takeuchi & Vaala, 2014); therefore, it is not surprising that some classroom teachers have expressed a need for guidance on how to use DGBL effectively (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009;Jukes, McCain, & Crockett, 2010;O'Rourke, Main, & Ellis 2013).…”

“…These observations suggest that the teachers in the comparison classrooms were selecting strategies intended to engage students in mental-maths activities. Observation of a variety of teacher practice in the intervention classrooms (described by O'Rourke, Main, & Ellis, 2013) as 'the guiding teacher', 'the facilitating teacher' and the 'interactive teacher'), illustrated that regardless of the different teaching approaches when using the HGCs, these classroom pedagogies appeared to have little influence on the positive student perceptions and improvements in mental-maths skills. It was evident in classroom observations that by maintaining set classroom structures the HGCs had the capacity to engage and motivate students, irrespective of the approach of the teacher (O'Rourke et al, 2013).…”

“…The semi-structured interviews were analysed for themes using a line-by-line open coding approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The teachers' feedback was overwhelmingly positive with 64.4% of their comments relating to improved student engagement and motivation, enhanced problem solving, choice making, goal-setting and collaboration, and becoming more organised and independent (see O'Rourke, Main, & Ellis, 2013 for full exposition of teacher feedback). While teachers were supportive of the intervention approach, 5% of interview material suggested that students could become overly competitive when using the HGCs.…”

“…These roles have been explored in more detail in O'Rourke, Main, and Ellis (2013), but for one teacher the HGCs provided an assurance of quality instruction:…”

“…This data indicated that students were, on average, engaged (using the HGCs on their own) for 65% of the 20 minute session with only 10% of the time being spent in non-specific activities (off-task behaviour and conversations not related to the use of the HGCs). Of the remaining time, approximately 15% was spent on sharing (student shares their progress with the teacher and their peers, often in the form of high scores) and 10% on assisting (student assists another with the operation of the HGC e.g., student takes a leadership role in collaborating with fellow students to address technical issues and strategies [see O'Rourke, Main, & Ellis (2013) for a full exploration of student classroom behaviour]). While such analysis was not conducted in the current research, the vignette presented in the results section challenged the perception that many students in primary settings meet maths classes with antipathy and non-enthusiasm.…”