Playing with Numbers and Letters
Teresa Ferraiuolo, Rosanna Coseglia
Two educational games created by the authors of this paper have been tested to enhance both mathematics and linguistic skills and to encourage motivation and involvement in a group of primary school students. The main idea is to prove the validity of playful educational teaching on cognitive, motivational, emotional and relational aspects. The project involved two third grade classes of the same primary school (both were test and control group of the other) and a third grade class of another primary school. Standardized tests were used to evaluate initial students’ profiles, to orient the enrichment teaching and future progress. Re-test results have shown substantial progress either for students with and without learning difficulties. The main idea of the study was confirmed: educational games, and more specifically the two tested games help student’s involvement and motivation and they upgrade their skills, even with different initial difficulties and learning styles.
Keywords
Inclusive didactics, Educational games, Skills enhancement, Motivation.