Fun and Functional: Using Non-Digital Games to Promote Maths Engagement in Pre-service Teachers

Humans naturally engage in playful activities throughout their lives and play serves as a fundamental mechanism for cognitive development as well as the development of essential soft skills such as teamwork, decision-making, leadership, and communication. Recognizing this innate predisposition for play, educators are increasingly embracing gamification strategies into their classrooms. More attention has been driven to digital tools such as platforms Kahoot! and Duolingo which gained popularity and demonstrated the potential of game-based learning to increase engagement and knowledge retention. However, concerns about digital screen time fuelled a renewed interest in non-digital activities, including educational games. Non-digital games are often more accessible and affordable, making them suitable for schools with limited resources. Research suggests that non-digital games can effectively promote collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills. In addition, they offer flexibility to teachers to adapt rules and scenarios to specific learning objectives and student needs. Recognizing the benefits of employing games as a pedagogical strategy, the first author of this study opted to incorporate game-based learning strategies into her classes, on a regular basis. Throughout the semester, various non-digital games were implemented, inspired on well-known classics such as memory card games, Monopoly and Pictionary. These games were carefully designed to address specific mathematics topics identified as either the most relevant or those where students revealed more difficulties. The participants in this study were pre-service pre- and primary school teachers enrolled in a maths undergraduate course. Since these students are future educators, the games served a dual purpose: improving current learning experiences and providing teaching resources for their future classrooms. At the end of the semester, a survey was conducted to evaluate students’ perceptions towards the use of games in the mathematics teaching-learning process. In this paper we describe some of the games used in this study and analyse the results of the survey. Previous studies reveal that students generally welcome the incorporation of games, perceiving them as effective tools for enhancing motivation and promoting positive learning outcomes. Our findings corroborate these studies.