Effects of Education Games as Instructional Tools in Teaching College Algebra

Abstract

Time and again, curriculum planners, policy makers and researchers have been exploring the extent thru which numeracy among students develops and improves via Mathematics instruction. The quality of Mathematics education in the country is alarming. Some measures have been exhausted to address this discipline’s status which is attributed to multi-faceted reasons, and causes. Commonly, students in college experience the most difficult phase in learning Mathematics. No matter how difficult a subject is, a competent instructor could make it easy. Believing that everything exists with its own hidden value, educational games do have its greatest value in the field of Mathematics especially in College Algebra. Thus, to help the Math instructors and other stakeholders solve the difficulties that students encounter in College Algebra, the researchers aimed to determine the effectiveness of educational games as instructional tools in teaching College Algebra among bona fide freshman students of Guimaras State College- Mosqueda and Salvador Campuses for the first semester of academic year 2015-2016. This study utilized the thirty (30) – item pretest and posttest multiple- choice questionnaire that undergone validation and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.803). Communications to proper authorities were secured. This study used pretest posttest design between two groups: experimental in Mosqueda Campus, and controlled in Salvador Campus. Each group had thirty (30) subjects taught and facilitated by the same researcher instructor. The experimental group had an intervention of educational games while the controlled group had lecture method. Both groups had been taught for one term with the same time frame and topics. Mean scores were used to determine the performances of two groups while paired samples t-tests were used to determine the differences of their test results. Results were collected, organized, presented, analyzed, and interpreted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software program. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results revealed that subjects in the experimental group had higher performance than controlled group based on their pretest and posttest mean scores. Likewise, there were significant differences on their pretest and posttest results. Hence, the null hypotheses were rejected. These results implied that educational games as instructional tools were better than pure lecture method in the teaching-learning process of the 21st century learners. Thus, educational games shall be used in other disciplines or areas, not only in College Algebra, and these shall serve as bases for extension programs for those learners who encounter difficulties in learning Mathematics.