The effect of mathematics teaching performed through educational computer games on conceptual learning

Mathematics has always been in our lives both as a practical calculation tool and a discipline leading other disciplines for centuries. This importance of mathematics requires effective teaching of mathematics. It can be possible by teaching of basic mathematical concepts. Because the learning of concepts which are the basics of knowledge is a prerequisite for constructing the knowledge and making mathematical operations. However, there are difficulties in teaching mathematics that have difficult and abstract concepts. For this reason, mathematics educators have begun to use new teaching approaches besides traditional ones. It is thought that using educational computer games in teaching of probability in which there are difficulties to learn because of the abstract concepts will ensure conceptual learning.The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of mathematics teaching performed through educational computer games on conceptual learning regarding some probabilistic concepts. The present study was conducted through quasi-experimental model in 2010-2011 educational year and carried out with 90 sixth grade students studying at a primary school located in Souteastern Region of Turkey. In order to collect data, ?Conceptual Development Test? consisted of 14 questions and developed by researcher with the help of literature was used. Two materials were designed in Java programming language by NetBeans editor to perform teaching process. Research findings revealed that teaching through educational computer games contributed students? conteptual learnings on some probabilistic concepts. Moreover, both groups had improvements in terms of conceptual learning but improvement in experimental group was more than in control group. In the light of these results, it can be suggested that environments in which educational computer games are used more in order for conceptual learning in mathematics teaching should be employed.Keywords: Computer Supported Mathematics Teaching, Probability Teaching, Conceptual Learning, Educational Computer Games.