Principles for Effectively Communicating the Theoretical Framing of Our Work

Gameplay in Perspective: Applications of a Conceptual Framework to Analyze Features of Mathematics Classroom Games in Consideration of Students’ Experiences

“…Those studies that have investigated learning with games have employed broad constructs, such as affect, motivation, and other factors and that if games are used for learning, then a cognitive aspect must be considered (e.g., Garris et al, 2002;Plass et al, 2015). However, given the specificity of theorizing expected within the field of mathematics education (Cai et al, 2019;Leatham, 2019;Spangler & Williams, 2019), extant frameworks about cognition with games from other disciplines (e.g., Garris, et al, 2002) have been too broad to be useful to advance scholarly or practical understanding of game-based mathematics learning. Thus, an innovation of this study was to ensure that theoretical perspectives draw from research specific to mathematics learning.…”

“…This perspective, however, is too general to account for the variety of games, content area differences or honor the diverse needs and perspectives of students. As Leatham (2019) emphasized, a theoretical framework in mathematics education must be sufficiently specific to the phenomenon we intend to understand. Thus, this study Nurnberger-Haag, Wernet, & Benjamin 274 collected data about students' experiences playing a variety of games about the same mathematics content, integer operations.…”

“…We were able to notice features of games and better understand student experiences because of the theoretical frameworks we synthesized into the Mathematics Classroom Games Features Framework. This is the purpose of a framework (Leatham, 2019;Spangler & Williams, 2019). Scholars could apply this framework to future investigations of game-based learning of mathematics topics other than integers (see Figure 1).…”