Title: Using board games to improve mathematical creativity

Authors: Jungkyu Park; Kwangho Lee

Addresses: Elementary Mathematics Education, Graduate School of Korea National University of Education, 29 Gungdong-ro Iksan, Jeon-Buk, 54542, South Korea ' Department of Primary Teacher Education, Korea National University of Education, 250 Taeseongtabyeon-ro Gangnae-myeon Heungdeok-gu Cheongju, Chung-Buk, 28173, South Korea

Abstract: Our study examined whether playing board games improved elementary students' mathematical creativity and, if it did, how board games should be used effectively in the elementary classroom. To accomplish this aim, we invited three fifth-grade classes to participate in our study, two classes serving as experimental groups and one class as a control group. One experimental group was a teacher-led group and the other a free-play group. After the four weeks, the creativity of the board game participants improved significantly as demonstrated through t-test, comparing the pretest and the post test. The free-play group students' flexibility, one of the components of creativity, improved significantly (p = 0.022). We also found that for students who received lower scores in mathematical creativity in the pretest, teachers need to intervene in the activities; however, for the higher-ranked students, opportunities should be given to play without interventions to enhance creativity.

Keywords: mathematical creativity; board game; teacher-led group; free-play group.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2017.088182

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 2017 Vol.12 No.1, pp.49 - 58

Received: 23 Mar 2017
Accepted: 01 Jun 2017
Published online: 27 Nov 2017 *

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