Abstract:

Moviefication involves the application of cinematic means and movie principles in non-movie contexts. It has been used successfully in various contexts, including Higher Education, and can aid learning in especially online environments. Moviefication is also widely applied in mathematical subjects when difficult concepts are explained or when new concepts are introduced – activities that form part of the so-called “class room”-side. What has been less explored, is the use of this mechanism in the “homework”-side of learning, where learners need to apply this knowledge to complete mathematical exercises. Ample opportunities exist to utilize moviefication in assisting learners with word problems in Mathematics, especially in contexts where the language of the textbook is different from the first language of learners.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of moviefication of mathematical word problems to increase learner engagement in completing homework exercises at a private higher education institute. The textbook for this subject (including the homework questions) is written in English, while none of the students have English as a first language. Several (but not all) homework word problem questions were developed into short videos. Each video was produced by a film team to create an entertaining character and narrative, presented in the learners’ first language.

In a quasi-experiment, an adapted version of a pre-test-post-test design was followed. Due to ethical concerns, no student group could be deprived of access to these videos for the sake of creating a control group. Instead, homework submissions for the first semester (where no videos were yet available) were compared with homework submissions during the second semester (where such videos were made available). In addition, homework submission of the moviefied questions were compared to submissions of subsequent (non-moviefied) questions from the same learning unit. This was done to determine whether the videos could only serve as a replacement of written word problems, or if it could also support completion of non-moviefied problems.

Keywords:

Moviefication, learner engagement, mathematics, word problems.