ROLE OF MATH GAME APPS ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS MATHEMATICS AMONG PRIMARY STUDENTS IN KOGI STATE

Mathematics is an essential part of the Nigerian education vision. Mathematics is widely perceived as a tedious and challenging subject to learn. Thus, math avoidance behavior is a trend that cuts across culture and is pervasive among young learners. Research has pointed the relevance of computer games in learning mathematics. Therefore, the current study is aimed to examine the role of math game apps on the attitude of primary school students in Kogi State of Nigeria towards mathematics. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-tests and two groups (experimental and control) were adopted. Primary school students in Kogi State made up the population of the study. Eighty-three (n = 83) students comprising males and females within the age range of 7 – 11 years and mean age of (M=9.12) and (SD= 1.22) were randomly pooled from selected public primary schools in Kogi State as the study participants. The students were assigned to groups, with group A as the experimental group, while group B represents the control group. Before the main studys commencement, students attitude towards mathematics was established (pre-test) using an attitude towards mathematics questionnaire. In the post-test study, the treatment group student (group A) was exposed to a math game app (Prodigy Math). The result showed that the gaming app significantly influenced the experimental groups attitude towards mathematics (M = 43.81, SD = 9.54) compared to the control group (M = 32.15, SD = 5.27). An independent t-test conducted to determine the group differences in attitude towards mathematics established that math gaming apps influenced the participants attitude towards mathematics at MD = 11.66 (95% CI, 7.92 to 15.16), t (81) = 6.317, p = .001. The study recommends that the use of gaming app should be embedded in the school curriculum.