PotentialL effects of an active video game on physical education and on mathematical learnings

Abstract

An increasing development of digital technologies occurred during the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays, in developed countries most children daily use various digital tools and practice video games. On the other hand, digital tools have been introduced at school to facilitate teaching. The possibility that some video games might favor school learning has been consequently suggested, which requires further examination. In this framework, the interest of active video games (AVGs) as specific tools for learning should be determined. The AVGs lead to interact with a digital environment by mean of motor actions not reduced to the use of a joystick or of a keyboard (e.g.: ball-throw, locomotion). Moreover, some AVGs embed this interaction in the resolution of a cognitive problem. Such AVGs thus appear to be well-suited to connect physical education (PE) with other school subjects. In particular, the literature has emphasized the possible interest of connecting PE and mathematics in school programs. Such connection might be fostered by the use of AVGs that include mathematical contents. However, although studies showed that AVGs practice may favor mental and physical exertion, the possible influence of AVGs on school learning has been poorly studied. The present study thus aimed to approach whether the same AVG may favor both motor and mathematical learnings. The study was initialized by selecting among the 41 AVGs available on the Lü® platform those that involve mathematical skills and/or abilities required in mathematics. The design and contents of the six selected AVGs were analyzed with the aim to identify the plausible learning effects of such AVGs. The analysis was done using the scientific literature on the effects of AVGs practice and on the possible links between movement and numerical cognition, The results showed that the examined AVGs were found to have classical features of most AVGs, (e.g.: the possibility to adapt the task difficulty or to provide frequent and accurate feedback) that may favor both the motivation to improve task performance and the repetition to obtain such improvement. It was also observed that most of the examined AVGs require the repetition of sequences that include the performance of a given arithmetical task and a ball throw on a target. Interestingly it was found that the repetition of such sequences might help the players to focus visuospatial attention on elements favoring both the correct performance of the arithmetic task and of the ball throw. Furthermore, two examined AVGs were found to possibly allow to train the mental rotation ability, which raised the question of the effect of such training on mathematical tasks. This finally led to discuss potential implications of AVGs for multidisciplinary teaching purposes.