Abstract:

During the last years technological and knowledge dynamic has been changing very rapidly. In a new Network society, social, economic, politic and cultural relations are experiencing a new form of organization. This society model development and growth revolve around the generation and consumption of information, where intellectual creativity of the individual emerges providing knowledge, replacing past more communist social figure. In this way the knowledge and the innovation together with the technology adoption and diffusion appear as key factors. Internet is no longer only information searching tool, but it also allows to establish a constant, democratic, participative and collaborative relation among different users.

Spain experienced a change in the educational profile of its population, being increased the rate of young people between 20 and 24 years of age who complete their secondary education, at the same time being reduced the rate of those who abandons it early. Nevertheless, according to the data published by the National Statistical Institute (INE) in 2014, early school leaver rate in Spain in 2013 was the highest in the European Union (EU), doubling the European Union rate (EU-28) (27.2% and 13.6% correspondingly). The last PISA (Programme For International Student Assessment) test evaluated problem solving ability of 15 years old students using both digital and print media. The test measured the abilities in mathematics, reading, science, problem solving and financial literacy. The report of this test classified Spanish students in the level 2 of knowledge, from 6 possible levels established by PISA, showing that 28.5% of 15 years old students lag behind in this ability, and only 7.8% achieve to be among excellent students.

With an aim to improve these results in mathematics, it was proposed to apply active methodologies and to improve learning process through Gamification. This classroom working tool aims at teaching through games, building on the success they have among teenagers. For that purpose, two activities have been developed to be carried out during one didactic unit that pretend to generate emotions and motivate students to learn mathematics. The results obtained with secondary school students were evaluated, showing a significant improvement compared to traditional methods based on master lecture.

Keywords:

Gamification, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Learning, Emotion, Compulsory Secondary Education.