Developing Number Concepts in Young Children through Educational Games

Many children appear to experience low motivation towards learning mathematics, which may negatively impact on their performance and engagement in further learning. More recently, educational games have been presented as a way of improving student motivation and performance in mathematics. The current study aimed to explore the impact that educational games had on the development of number concepts in kindergarten children aged between 5 and 6 years in Amman, Jordan. Employing purposive sampling techniques, fifty-five (N=55) kindergarten children (25 males and 30 females) in private kindergartens participated in the study. The sample was randomly distributed into two groups: twenty-nine (29) in the experimental group and twenty-six (26) in the control group. Researchers developed an innovative Mathematical Educational Games Program (MEGP) and an achievement test for children. Results indicated a significant difference between the control and experimental groups in favour of the experimental group with no significant difference being attributed to gender. In addition, the results showed no interaction between gender and the MEGP. This paper will therefore discuss the implications of these findings on the development of number concepts with kindergarten-aged children.