Digitally Supervised Play of Math Games Improves Math Learning More When the Games Are Played With Peers Than When Played Individually

Because many children worldwide fail to realize their potential for learning school mathematics, diverse initiatives have embraced using digital technologies that provide feedback to individual children. Such training, however, draws children's attention away from the teacher and peers, reducing opportunities for peer-to-peer teaching, learning, and collaboration. In this paper, we present a novel approach to learning through a digitally controlled training program providing partial feedback to groups of children who play together with concrete materials to foster discussion, collaboration, and consensus-based responses to mathematical problems. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, children from each participating classroom were randomly assigned to play the same math games either individually on digital tablets with feedback to each individual child or in small groups using physical cards guided by a digital device that provided feedback only at group level: a "Magic Box." To encourage children in both conditions to reflect on their performance and correct their errors, partial rather than complete feedback was given in both conditions. Results showed that play in groups produced greater improvement in children's math skills than individual play. Thus, math play in groups with partial digital feedback may serve as an effective complement to traditional school math curricula.