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82: SELF-REGULATED LEARNING STRATEGIES IN PROBLEM SOLVING IN MATH: “LET’S PARTY” AS AN EDUCATIONAL GAME

Problem solving skills are related to the acquisition of self-regulation strategies which enable students to better construct knowledge and meaning. The acquisition and development of these strategies can be encouraged through educational digital games that provide opportunities for training and evaluating self-regulation strategies. The aim of this study was to develop a digital game (“Let’s Party”) that could offer training opportunities with a ludic component to specifically aid students in problem solving, namely through the planning, organization, implementation and evaluation of a birthday party. Another aim was to understand how both students and their respective teachers perceived the game as an educational tool. A total of 384 3rd and 4th primary school students solved a traditional math problem prior to and after they played the game. They had to describe how they had solved the problems and also completed the Problem Solving Expectations and Evaluation Checklist before and after each problem. The 16 teachers also played the game and provided useful suggestions. Results showed an increase in students’ verbalizations of strategies they used to solve the problems and more accurate expectations and evaluations of their work. While teachers mentioned how the game was useful to develop math reasoning with a positive adherence on the students’ behalf, the latter referred that they gained awareness of the different phases of problem solving during the different stages of the game and how these processes could be transferred to solve other problems, thus, revealing its potentiality. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

Author(s):

Paula Ferreira    
Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal

Ana Margarida Veiga Simão    
Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal

Ana Paula Paulino    
Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal

Adelina Lopes da Silva    
Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal