Learning math the gaming way

During the course of my career as an inventor of maths learning solutions, I have often been asked whether maths learning is important in the 21st century when most maths calculuses and formulae are readily available in digital form. My standard answer to such questions is that far from becoming obsolete, numeracy and maths learning has become even more important for survival and success in the 21st century than it was in yesteryear. When students are numerate, they can reason, and apply various facets of mathematical knowledge, including computation, numbers sense, probability, statistics, geometry, algebra and measurement. As the world becomes incrementally more technological, our children must develop strong numeracy skills. In its report (2015) titled New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology, the World Economic Forum identifies 16 skills that are the prerequisites of success in the 21st century. “To thrive in today’s innovation-driven economy, workers need a different mix of skills than in the past. In addition to foundational skills like literacy and numeracy, they need competencies like collaboration, creativity and problem-solving, and character qualities like persistence, curiosity and initiative.” When children become numerate they acquire the capability to recognise patterns and understand how things are connected. The discipline that is mathematics trains the mind to think logically, persistently, with accuracy and rigour. Developing and strengthening these skills prepares children to successfully learn other vital competencies.  The world is changing faster than our ability to keep pace. Today, traditional subjects of mathematics, such as algebra, geometry and calculus, are under pressure to be streamlined by groups like the National Science Foundation, OECD and the Royal Society, so that content can be rebalanced to make room for statistics, probability, computer science and mathematical modeling. That’s because in the unfolding future, nearly every career and vocation will require a strong grounding in numeracy. Therefore children’s math skills need to be continuously updated as the very definition of numeracy is expanding, even as the pedagogies and systems available for teaching this fast expanding discipline are almost static.  Most math teachers are engaged in high-tech drilling for rote learning, providing digital textbook-style content, or using one-way instructional videos that fail to engage the overwhelming majority of children. Little wonder that math phobia is a rising phenomenon worldwide.  It’s against this backdrop of rising antipathy to maths learning that several innovative educators worldwide, especially in the US, have developed new pedagogies centred around digital games. It’s now established that well-designed games can engage children in continuous hours of mathematical thinking. But the secret of inducing children to invest time and effort in maths learning games is to ensure that the games are presented to them in a gradient with increasing complexity as they move up from one level to the next. Games that prescribe short durations of play often offer dynamic assessment of skills already mastered. Rigour is introduced incrementally to ensure that groups of students are continuously stretched just beyond their comfort level to develop logical thinking and mathematical discipline…