Rethinking Numeracy in the Design of Games for Learning

Ben DeVane · Christopher Holden

Wed., June 10, 5:00–7:00, Great Hall (4th floor, Central)

The world is in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In the United States alone, total home equity has dropped by approximately one third—a loss of $4 trillion—and total retirement savings had fallen by one-fifth from their mid-2006 peak values (Altman, 2008). While the primary reason for the current crisis lies in the deregulation of credit and housing markets (Krugman, 2008), the failure of mathematic and financial education to adequately teach the public how to approach complex credit instruments stands as a proximate cause (Kozup & Hogarth, 2008). Even amidst curricular reform measures that emphasize "critical reasoning" and "adaptive problem solving" (NCTM, 2008), math and financial education remain rooted in normative modes of learning centered on decontextualized knowledge, abstract problems, and universal maxims. In this symposium, we draw on data from different game-based research projects on math and financial literacy to outline a new theory of situated numeracy learning with video games.

Games for learning and the struggle for relevance and meaning in math education

Math researchers have begun to look towards informal mathematical practices for insight into content, cognition, and pedagogical structure (Lave 1988; Nasir, 2000). However, embedded within math curricula and classroom practices are normative values which favor instructional paradigms focused on generality and displace those that emphasize the particular nature of "everyday" mathematical practices (Walkerdine, 1996). As a result, powerful situated approaches to numeracy education are unfairly dismissed as not mathematically rigorous (Brown, 2001; Schoenfeld, 2002). Similar tensions will emerge as designers of games for learning seek to engage players in authentic, meaningful learning activities while maintaining legitimacy within mainstream mathematics discourse (see Ernest, 1991). As spaces that emphasize both situated activity and systemic thinking, educational video games can help researchers re-imagine mathematics education as they interrogate the value of the "math problem" for learning and reconnect numeracy to "everyday" social practices (see Moses & Cobb, 2001).

Financial literacy and experiential learning in/with video games.

Most contemporary approaches to financial literacy education are rooted in a behaviorist psychology (Shane, 2001) and emphasize abstract principles for financial behavior (Lucey & Giannangelo, 2006). Research on this curricula has found that they have very little if any impact on students’ financial knowledge (Peng et al., 2007). However, students who participate in game-based curricula perform better than their counterparts on measures of financial literacy (Mandell, 2006).

We argue that games present an alternative pedagogical model. The psychosocial moratorium that video games provide gives players the chance to build financial meta-knowledge by exploring and experimenting with the mathematical relationships between elements of a complex morphologic system (see Gee, 2003). Players thus develop an embodied empathy for the dynamic workings of the game model (Gee, 2007). Such affordances make games excellent spaces for players to develop their financial knowledge and dispositions—a position that is increasingly accepted in mainstream financial education discourse (Bernanke, 2006).

References

Altman, R. C. (2009). The Great Crash, 2008: A Geopolitical Setback for the West. Foreign Affairs, 88(1), 2-14.

Bernanke, B. (2006). Testimony before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate, 23.

Brown, S. (2001). Reconstructing school mathematics: Problems with problems and the real world. New York: Peter Lang.

Ernest, P. (1991). The Philosophy of Mathematics Education. London: The Falmer Press.

Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gee, J. (2007). Learning and Games. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning, 21-40.

Krugman, P. (2008). The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. New York: W. W. Norton.

Kozup, J., & Hogarth, J. (2008). Financial Literacy, Public Policy, and Consumers' Self-Protection-More Questions, Fewer Answers. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 42(2), 127-136.

Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lucey, T. A., & Giannangelo, D. M. (2006). Short Changed: The Importance of Facilitating Equitable Financial Education in Urban Society. Education and Urban Society, 38(3), 268-287.

Moses, R., & Cobb, C. (2001). Radical equations: Math literacy and civil rights. Boston: Beacon Press.

Nasir, N. (2000). "Points ain't everything": Emergent goals and average and percent understandings in the play of basketball among African American students. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 31 (3), 283-305.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Peng, T., Bartholomae, S., Fox, J. J., & Cravener, G. (2007). The impact of personal finance education delivered in high school and college courses. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 28(2).

Schoenfeld, A. (2002). Making mathematics work for all children: Issues of standards, testing, and equity. Educational Researcher, 31 (1), 13.

Tate, W. (1995). Returning to the root: A culturally relevant approach to mathematics pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34 (3), 166-173.

Walkerdine, V. (1994). Reasoning in a post-modern age. In P. Ermest (Ed.), Mathematics, education and philosophy: An international perspective. (pp. 61-75). London: The Falmer Press.