Stimulating students’ engagement in mathematics courses in non-STEM academic programmes: A game-based learning

Abstract

It is of utmost importance to innovate in current teaching practices at higher education in order to enhance learners’ involvement, comprehension, cooperation and motivation. In non-STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes students tend to display a negative attitude towards mathematic-related courses, which usually materialises in low student participation if only using traditional lecture formats. Aiming at overcoming this, game-based learning (GBL) is regarded as a potential means of improving students’ confidence and increasing their interest for learning. This study proposes a teamwork activity inspired by GBL, presented in the form of a competition. To test the suitability of the activity, we report its implementation in the subject of Mathematics 1, taught as part of the Business Administration Degree at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Spain). We hope that the underlying idea of the activity as well as the encouraging results obtained stimulate lecturers to implement GBL activities in their courses.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• university mathematics education
• mathematics
• teaching practices
• active learning
• game-based learning
• teamwork