Are Games a Viable Home Numeracy Practice

The promise that mathematics can be taught from a young age through fun, engaging games is an enticing proposition, so enticing that considerable effort has been expended to determine whether gaming is an effective teaching tool. This effort includes not just individual investigations but multiple meta-analyses with a combined evaluation of over 500 studies testing the effectiveness of educational games. Despite all of this interest and the resulting concerted research effort, there is no clear answer as to whether games are a viable tool for improving young children’s numeracy ability. This ambiguity is due to math game research not addressing two critical questions: what is a game and how does learning occur within the context of a game. Answering these questions is the first step in determining whether math games can be both fun and formative.