The Impact of a Digital Game on Spatial Reasoning for Elementary School Students

ABSTRACT Background Spatial reasoning is a crucial factor in students' mathematics performance. Providing training to elementary students in spatial reasoning is a promising way to improve their performance in mathematics. The use of digital games to assist instruction has been found to have a positive impact on students' spatial reasoning. Objective This study incorporates digital games into mathematics classrooms to investigate their effects on fourth graders' spatial reasoning. Methods The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group or the control group, with the experimental group using a blended learning approach and the control group still receiving regular instruction. Before and after four sessions of intervention, both groups took a pretest and a posttest on object observation and mental rotation skills. Results and Conclusions The Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) results revealed that the experimental group showed significantly greater improvement in the two tasks compared to the control group, even after accounting for initial differences. Furthermore, the hierarchical linear regression results indicated that students' performance in the game was predictive of their performance in the object observation task. Implications Overall, the results of this study highlight the potential of digital game environments in developing spatial reasoning. The incorporation of digital games into educational practice can be an effective way to develop and improve students' spatial reasoning.