An Examination of the Promise of the NumberShire Level 1 Gaming Intervention for Improving Student Mathematics Outcomes

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to test the promise of the NumberShire Level 1 Gaming Intervention (NS1) to accelerate math learning for first-grade students with or at risk for math difficulties. The NS1 intervention was developed through the Institute of Education Sciences, Small Business Innovation Research Program (Gause, Fien, Baker, & Clarke, 2011) as a digitally based technology tool to allow educators to intervene early and strategically with students struggling to learn mathematics. This study used a randomized controlled trial design to test the promise of the NS1 intervention. In total, 250 first-grade students were randomly assigned within classrooms to the treatment condition or a control condition. Results indicate significant effects favoring the treatment group on proximal measures of whole-number concepts and skills. Intervention effects were not statistically significant for distal outcome measures. Treatment effects were not moderated by special education or English learner status; however, the condition by initial skill level interaction approached significance. Additionally, there was no relationship between dosage variables and students' response to the intervention. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• intervention
• gaming
• math

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Hank Fien, Christian T. Doabler, Nancy J. Nelson, and Scott K. Baker are eligible to receive a portion of royalties from the University of Oregon's distribution and licensing of certain Numbershire-based works. Potential conflicts of interest are managed through the University of Oregon's Research Compliance Services. An independent external evaluator and coauthor of this publication completed the research analysis described in the article.

ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 22 May 2015Revised 3 November 2015Accepted 9 November 2015

EDITORS

This article was reviewed and accepted under the editorship of Carol McDonald Connor and Spyros Konstantopoulos.

Funding

This research was supported in part by Project NumberShire 1, Grant No. EDIES11C0026, a subcontract with ThoughtCycle through the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, Small Business Innovation Research Program. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.