Abstract:

Game-Based Learning (GBL) is a methodology that uses learning games so that students learn almost without realizing it, in a natural way. Presnsky [1] believes that GBL will be a normal learning style since it is the learning style of the current generation and future generations; because it motivates and is fun; it is versatile and can be adapted to almost all disciplines and when used correctly it is extremely effective. Many works have been presented in the literature and describe the ability of this approach to smooth the mathematics learning process without compromising its efficiency, in addition to, directly or indirectly, motivating and favouring students' superior cognitive development, particularly critical thinking in mathematics. However, implementing games in education is difficult, as it takes a lot of work from teachers to connect games and education, and thus bring about a change in the school paradigm.

The GBL described here was designed for first-year students of the Degree in Sustainable Management of Cities at the Coimbra Institute of Engineering. This methodology was applied in the practical classes for 3 hours, 30 minutes. The general objectives consisted of learning mathematics content, relating to matrices and their operations, in an enjoyable way. The game takes the student on a trip around the world on Padlet according to a travel itinerary.

The student sets out on this adventure from Coimbra (Portugal), and through encoding and decoding codes using matrices and their operations, other cities appear, and the journey continues until reaching Coimbra again. The student works in a group following one of 3 travel itineraries. Each group is assigned a route, and the trip continues according to the deciphered clues. The student has a logbook, as the guidelines for the entire trip, where they can write down important events such as deciphered clues. For example, one of the itineraries is obtained by applying operations on lines of a matrix to reach the Lemur Park in Madagascar. Then the trip takes place by hang glider towards Mexico. The city Yucatan is chosen by decoding a message given the encryption key (both the encoded message and the key are matrices). The next itinerary heads north, where temperatures are -16ºC, towards Greenland. By multiplying two matrices indicating the encoded GPS coordinates, Ittoqqortoormiit is identified. Along the journey, stars with letters are collected and used to decipher the final phrase (“Game over”).

To measure students' interest in this type of learning and evaluate whether it contributed to learning the content, a questionnaire was carried out. Knowing and understanding the effects of applying this active methodology in the teaching-learning of mathematical content was the main objective. Data were collected essentially through participant observation and questionnaire. The results show that this learning methodology aroused the motivation and interest of the students, who enthusiastically engaged in GBL, optimizing the construction of meaningful learning. The students reacted positively to the proposed game, making it possible to assume that GBL can contribute to the learning of mathematics in higher education. However, more applications of work and case studies are needed for these and other engineering students to better understand the contributions that GBL can offer to mathematics teaching.

References:
[1] Prensky, M. (2021). Aprendizagem baseada em jogos digitais. Editora Senac São Paulo.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, active methodology, case study, mathematics, higher education.