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Running Head: MULTIMEDIA PROJECT The Effect of Video Game Technology on Math Skills of Children By Valerie Elaine Mitchell-Stevens MS, Howard University, 1973 BS, Findlay University, 1971 Proposal Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of    Requirements for the Degree of      Doctor of Philosophy Education: Educational Technology Walden University May 2015

**Table of Contents **
 * Chapter 1 3 **
 * Chapter 2 26 **
 * Chapter 3 **
 * References 41 **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 1 Introduction **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> If technology can have an impact on learning performance how can educational video gaming impact performance in specific educational curricula such as math? Several educational researchers have explored how video game engagement affects learning given game based learning environments (Ke, 2008b). However evidence on the educational effectiveness of video games is not proven to be true because of lack of empirical evidence (Connolly et al., 2012; and Young et al., 2012). Many educational games exist yet there is no empirical evidence to prove the impact on achievement in specific subject matters such as math. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Moizer and Lean (2010) identified some variables that could contribute to successful diffusion of gaming in learning and instruction. When reviewing the literature review conducted byYoung et al., (2012) who reviewed 300 peer reviewed articles and concluded that there is a lack of research on the impact of using video games as an educational tool especially in the area of learning math. They reported finding evidence for only language and physical education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Young et al., 2003 also described the learning process cycle as consisting of a set of antecedents associated with instructional technology, instructional methods, and student behavior. The authors stated further that the outcomes are learning performance, pedagogical effect, and numerical grades. Chaudhary (2010) has conducted several studies that show entertainment education is both a theoretically sound and practical approach to use as an effective tool to enhance the learning process and to keep the student engage in the learning process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The focus of this research is to determine if the use of video gaming in math increases math test scores for children more than students taught in the same way but without the video game. This study would assess the impact of using a math video game with instruction on the math problems compared to just using math instruction only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What do we know about the role educational video gaming can contribute to education performance in language arts, math, science and other academic subjects? There is the need for empirical research that identifies the relationship between educational game outcome measures and performance tests. The problem is there is not sufficient research to answer the question of whether an educational video game tool in math can increase gain scores in math. There is video games evidence to support academic value in math or science (Young et al., 2012). Do video games show demonstrable relationships to academic achievement gains when used to support the elementary curriculum? Young et al. states that research in game-based learning hints at the value of games as educational tools, there is the lack of cohesive themes in peer-reviewed articles suggests that there is missing information (pp. 80-81).

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Background ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ke (2008) conducted research to understand what impact video games would have on the school instructional system, gain scores when two groups of student’s scores are compared. The two student groups consisted of 358 students in which one group used only paper and pencil drills and the intervention group used a math video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The research question was is will the math video game be more affective in promoting math learning outcomes? The research design was a pretest – posttest quasi-experimental design. He used four video games for 5th grade students. A standard pretest to all student participants. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed to examine the main effects. The results showed that there was a significant effect of gain scores provided by the experimental group (F 15, 789 = 2.66 at p <.01 level). The author stated that computer video games in math are effective in promoting math learning outcomes. There was no discussion on how internal validity was controlled for. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Harris (2010) investigated the impact of electronic educational technology on ninth grade students at risk in reading. This study addressed the impact of video gaming in the area of reading. The author used secondary archived data as the pretest data for 34 ninth grade students and collected post test data for a repeated measure ANOVA design. The sampling was a non-probability convenience sampling. The author stated that the small sample served as the control group. The results indicated that the reading post test scores improved by one grade level after the gaming intervention. Kim and Chang (2010) performed multiple regression analysis on secondary data from 170,000 fourth grade students in math. Their results suggested that students who played computer games scored lower than students who did not play video games. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The authors reviewed the literature from 2005 to 2010 which showed mixed academic outcomes when video games in math and language are integrated into the curriculum. Kim and Chang research question was what is the relationship between video math games and performance? The secondary data was from the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES). The data collection method was a multi-stage probability sample design by counties and schools within that county. There was no research questions defined. Their results showed that students who played video games sometimes had higher math scores (N = 3,732,411, r = .031, p< .01) compared to students who played video games every day (r = .028, p < .01). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kim and Chang presented the discussion based on the research question and suggested that further research should be conducted using first hand data as compared to secondary data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The quantitative research study described by Rodrigo (2011) in which the author investigated the transition in cognitive affective states of students playing a pre-algebra game called Math Blaster. The cognitive-affective states were engagement, boredom, confusion, delight, surprise, frustration and neutral. Thirty male students were observed playing the game using paired observers for 200 seconds. The observers rated each student as being in a particular state persistently or the act of transitioning to a different cognitive-affective state. The results were reported in terms of the percentage of time participants were in one or several cognitive-affective states and the results were compared with previous research using the same methodology. The participants demonstrated 63% in the engagement followed by 22% in the boredom cognitive-affective state. This study had limitations in describing how the data was quantified, the use of all male participants, reliance on human observers which could jeopardize validity and reliability. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research participants pool consisted of 164 male students ages 13 in which 40 students were randomly selected however only 30 students actually participated because of issues concerning rater reliability using Cohen’s k =.77 which determines that the rating was not by chance. There is no support that the sample size ensures adequate power and the study designed focused on the observers, the rotation of students so that two observers did the same student at the same time. The observers recorded 720 observations for 30 students with each student observed for 200 minutes. There was no control group and all students played the math video game they just did not know that they were being observed. The observers were trained and practiced rating students before the actual study was conducted. It was not clear what statistical procedures would be executed for this study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results reflect 12 ratings per student for 30 students that played the game for 40 minutes. The researcher performed the analysis and generated two tables. One table described the seven cognitive-affective states and the percentage of time the students were observed in a state. The highest percentage was the engagement cognitive-affective state (63%), followed by boredom (22%). The second table showed D’Mello’s computed L value across students to determine the top four statistically significant cognitive-affective transitions (p //<//.05). There was no statement describing controls for data validity or reliability. The descriptive statistics were not provided in this study only between cognitive-affective transition data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The discussion centered on the persistence or lack of persistence concerning the cognitive-affective state of engagement. Students confused about the game transitioned to a different cognitive-affective state of delight. This study was conducted based on previous research by this author using the same method. The discussion focused on the limitations of this research study which should have been an improvement over the past research study. The limitations include the fact that the math video game was too simple and had very few challenges which influenced the boredom cognitive-affective state. The participants were boys ages 13 in which the results cannot be generalized to female or even mix populations reflecting different age groups. There was very little information on how the observed data was quantified, what procedures were used and no descriptive statistics were defined. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The reliability of the observers rating is still questionable concerning bias observations. The author reduced the number of participants from 40 to 30 because of this concern in the data. There is the need for automatic reporting or a mechanized reporting strategy that could minimize the bias in the observations of cognitive-affective states transitions. In addition there was no discussion on performance or achievement on the game or on the math content. The author stated that this research would determine which cognitive-affective state that persists would enhance the learning process. However the boredom cognitive-affective state was the only one that was persistent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A quantitative research study was conducted by Rodrigo (2011) in which the author investigated the transition in cognitive affective states of students playing a pre-algebra game called Math Blaster. The cognitive-affective states were engagement, boredom, confusion, delight, surprise, frustration and neutral. Thirty male students were observed playing the game using paired observers for 200 seconds. The observers rated each student as being in a particular state persistently or the act of transitioning to a different cognitive-affective state. The results were reported in terms of the percentage of time participants were in one or several cognitive-affective states and the results were compared with previous research using the same methodology. The participants demonstrated 63% in the engagement followed by 22% in the boredom cognitive-affective state. This study had limitations in describing how the data was quantified, the use of all male participants, reliance on human observers which could jeopardize validity and reliability. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research participants pool consisted of 164 male students ages 13 in which 40 students were randomly selected however only 30 students actually participated because of issues concerning rater reliability using Cohen’s k =.77 which determines that the rating was not by chance. There is no support that the sample size ensures adequate power and the study designed focused on the observers, the rotation of students so that two observers did the same student at the same time. The observers recorded 720 observations for 30 students with each student observed for 200 minutes. There was no control group and all students played the math video game they just did not know that they were being observed. The observers were trained and practiced rating students before the actual study was conducted. It was not clear what statistical procedures would be executed for this study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results reflect 12 ratings per student for 30 students that played the game for 40 minutes. The researcher performed the analysis and generated two tables. One table described the seven cognitive-affective states and the percentage of time the students were observed in a state. The highest percentage was the engagement cognitive-affective state (63%), followed by boredom (22%). The second table showed D’Mello’s computed L value across students to determine the top four statistically significant cognitive-affective transitions (p //<//.05). There was no statement describing controls for data validity or reliability. The descriptive statistics were not provided in this study only between cognitive-affective transition data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The discussion centered on the persistence or lack of persistence concerning the cognitive-affective state of engagement. Students confused about the game transitioned to a different cognitive-affective state of delight. This study was conducted based on previous research by this author using the same method. The discussion focused on the limitations of this research study which should have been an improvement over the past research study. The limitations include the fact that the math video game was too simple and had very few challenges which influenced the boredom cognitive-affective state. The participants were boys ages 13 in which the results cannot be generalized to female or even mix populations reflecting different age groups. There was very little information on how the observed data was quantified, what procedures were used and no descriptive statistics were defined. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The reliability of the observers rating is still questionable concerning bias observations. The author reduced the number of participants from 40 to 30 because of this concern in the data. There is the need for automatic reporting or a mechanized reporting strategy that could minimize the bias in the observations of cognitive-affective states transitions. In addition there was no discussion on performance or achievement on the game or on the math content. The author stated that this research would determine which cognitive-affective state that persists would enhance the learning process. However the boredom cognitive-affective state was the only one that was persistent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This study is very weak concerning the methodology and the author did acknowledge this in the limitations discussion. If the author included a sample size that is representative of the general population, used a different method strategy and performed more robust statistical procedures would improve the reliability and validity of this research study. The study does illustrate that there is a gap in the literature to confirm how educational video games can enhance math performance or math literacy. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statement of the Problem ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The problem is there is not sufficient empirical research to answer the question of whether an educational video game in math can increase gain scores in math but maintaining internal validity which is questionable in all the previous research reviewed. There is some evidence that video gaming in language arts, history and physical education increases student performance in those subject areas. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Young et al., (2012) found some research evidence to support how video games can achieve positive gain in language arts, history and certain areas of physical education (exergames) but no research was available to support the academic value of video games in the areas of science and math for the K to 12 curriculum. They reviewed over 300 peer-reviewed research articles and discovered issues in the methodology that was implemented to collect the data and the results of these studies did not demonstrate conclusive evidence to support the research question. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Connolly et al., (2012) reviewed the empirical research conducted using 9th grade to 12th grade curriculum and discovered that the literature on video games in learning outcomes is fragmented and lacks coherence based on the review of 129 peer-reviewed research articles. The problem that they discovered was in the research methodologies. The researchers indicated that given the 129 reviewed research papers 121 were reported to be quantitative but with the following breakdown. Sixty-five studies utilized quasi-experimental designs, 43 were survey designs and 12 implemented random control based designs and one study did implement a correlational design. The other 8 research designs were qualitative case studies. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The research methods identified by all the authors consisted of examining over 400 research documents in which the methodologies should have been based on randomized control environments instead of quasi-experimental design, survey, and correlational and qualitative design methods. The reason given is that randomized control environments clearly provide more rigorous evidence about the impacts of games in looking at affective outcomes. The point being there is concerned over internal and external validity control. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jabbar and Felicia (2015) conducted a systematic review of the literature and they determined that there is a lack of empirical evidence on the impact of video games on learning outcomes, and engagement. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are several questions concerning video gaming use to influence learning outcome gains. What is the relationship or the affect video games have on math score gains? What quantitative method would provide the best empirical evidence on the influence of video game use in math? Is there a statistically significant difference between achievement gains of children who are exposed to math video games as compared to those who are not exposed? **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Purpose of the Study ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The purpose of this research project is to determine if math video gaming can be used as an educational tool to increase multiplication math performance of 3rd and 4th grade students. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Research Question ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Is there a significant difference in score gains between video game usage and non-video game usage? This study will compare gaming and a placebo group’s learning gains using a pre/post-test strategy. However the proposed research design is the separate sample pretest/post- test control group design in which there are four groups. The treatment or intervention is presented to the groups as a whole generally two groups and two groups do not receive treatment. What is the significance or effect of using educational video games paired with formal instruction on student test performance? This design separates and avoids any testing effects on the treatment variable. According to Campbell and Stanley (1963) this research design minimizes internal and external validity violations. This research design method will be described further in Chapter 3. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Theoretical Construct Definition ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The components of gaming have been researched in terms of the game success which is attributed to factors such as feedback, progress status levels, degree of engagement, fantasy levels, competition, curiosity, control and motivation (Connolly et al., 2012). However there should be research that identifies the relationship between game features, outcome measures and learning style (Bedwell et al., 2012). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Meyer and Turner (2006) describe three theories that link emotions and learning, academic risk taking, flow theory and goal theory. Academic risk taking theory describes students that like challenges with difficult tasks and manage negative emotions in contrast to students that prefer simpler tasks with minimal challenges. Flow theory states that the learner is in a state of flow because they are so engaged that time and fatigue are not factors that affect performance. Goal theory states that outcomes that achieve goals result in positive emotions. The goal theory has another component which is the motivation to achieve goals. Gaming has a very high motivational component which is also linked with positive or negative emotions. Goal theory is the theoretical framework and foundation for the research project identified in this paper with the addition that multimedia learning using gaming, visuals and spoken instructions enhances the learning experience to achieve positive learning outcomes as stated by Mayer and Turner (2005). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Situated learning theory states all cognitive learning activity occurs in the context of a social situation and instances of learning transfer in situated terms (Cobb and Bowers, 1999). Situated learning theory suggests that the context or situation in which students learn impacts the degree to which educational outcomes are achieved (Utley, 2006). This situated pedagogy style that influences diverse learners which requires active engagement. It has five areas that will serve as the basis for this research project: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. Learning occurs from social interactions permitting ideas to be exchanged and modified. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Learning communities are developed to facilitate this social interaction. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">3. Learning involves gaining problem solving strategies in authentic activities. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. Collaboration with peers enhances the learning process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. Applied learning activities that engage students improve performance in that area. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The learning communities can be established by assigning students to specific groups and the social interactions can consists of collaborations in discussions and debriefing activities (Hsu & Wang, 2010). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The third dimension is the engagement of authentic activities and the activity proposed is the engagement in math and language arts video gaming. The inputs to student learning are a combination of applied technologies integrated with specific teaching methods coupled with student behaviors such as motivation to learn. The outcomes are level of student performance such as scores or grades on a test (Jabbar and Felicia, 2015). **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nature of the Study ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is a quantitative research study that will use a four group experimental design that was proposed by Solomon (1949). The random assignment to either the control or treatment groups provides the means to have the probability of being equally distributed to one of four groups (Solomon, 1949). In summary Solomon extended the use of a control group design to manage internal validity because of testing effects. This extended control group design requires two control groups, one in which receives the pre-test and the other control group does not.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The quantitative research design developed by Solomon is described in the following schematic: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Observation1 (pre-test) X (video gaming) Observation2 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Observation3 pre-test) nothing Observation4 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> X (video gaming) Observation5 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> nothing Observation6 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Solomon stated: “By paralleling the design elements (Observation 1 through 4) with experimental and control groups lacking the pre-test, both the main effects of testing and the interaction of testing and X (video gaming) are determinable. The pre-test becomes another treatment coordinate with X and is treated as the second independent variable. The post-test scores are analyzed using 2 X 2 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).” The estimates of the main effect of X using the column means can be determined and the main effect of pretesting is determined from the row means. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">All four groups receive instructions on multiplication. The treatment or intervention is presented to the groups as a whole generally two groups and two groups do not receive treatment. This design separates and avoids any testing effects on the treatment variable. According to Campbell and Stanley (1963) this research design controls for internal and external validity are well controlled for (pp. 53-55). The design notation is: R O1 X O2 R O3 O4 R X O5 R O6

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> **Student Participants** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There will be requests for volunteer students in third grade to participate in this research project. The students will be from several school districts in the state. The students will be given a video game in return for participating in this study. The actual number of participants is define later on in this proposal. The information concerning the multiplication is provided on a DVD and the DVD is produced by the University of Chicago. The experimental groups will receive instruction or tutorial on how to play the video game which is provided by the game manufacturer. The tests (pre and posttests) are produced by the Department of Education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In hypotheses testing the level of significance for this research project is alpha = .05 based on two tailed test. All of the information provided next is based on a calculated g*power analysis so this is a quick summary. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The power will be calculated before the study and confirmed afterwards. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Use of one or two tailed test will be considered. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sample size and test for reliability will be determined <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power Calculations and Expected Effect Size
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Size of the observed differences
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha level (p=.05 or p=.01)
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Significance and Reliability of Instruments Effect Size =.50 (Large) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Effect Size = .30 (Medium) ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha (α) error probability = .05 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha (α ) error probability = .05 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power (1 – ß error probability) = .95 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power (1 – β error probability) = .95 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Number of Groups = 4 (Solomon Four Group Design, 1949)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Number of Groups = 4 ||  ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Non-centrality = 3.71 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Non-centrality = 3.64 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Critical t value = 2.02 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Critical t value = 1.97 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">df = 1, 40 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">df = 1, 132 ||

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Definitions ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Achievement Gain (multiplication) - The difference in performance in math when the treatment group scores are compared to the control group scores. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Educational Video Game – A video game that provides educational content and reinforces instruction on that content. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Edutainmemnt – The merger of video game entertainment attributes and educational software into a single product that can be used as a teaching tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Flow theory - States constantly engaged in the learning activity such that time and fatigue are not factors that affect performance. The student engagement is based on the culmination flow of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (Shernoff et al., 2003). This research project is not collecting data to support this theory. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Goal Theory – The goal theory states that learning outcomes that achieve goals result in positive emotions and includes a high motivational component (Pintrich, 2000). This research is not gathering data on constructs within goal theory. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Situated Learning – The applied performance of students engaged in an activity after receiving formal curriculum information. The student receives information, applies that information while engaged in a problem solving activity then solves the problem. Situated learning theory states all cognitive learning activity occurs in the context of a social situation and instances of learning transfer in situated terms (Cobb and Bowers, 1999). Situated learning theory suggests that the context or situation in which students learn impacts the degree to which educational outcomes are achieved (Utley, 2006). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Video Game – Video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video display device and entertains the user. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Threats to Validity ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This research will identify how threats to validity are controlled in more detail in Chapter 3 of this proposal. The type of treat is identified in this section. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Generalizability of this research will be based on and limited to the student participant demographics and other research limitations define in this proposal. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This study assumes that the educational video game tools are weighted equally being developed with the same educational components such as generating immediate feedback, rewarding and can play an important component in the educational curriculum of math as it has in other education curriculum components. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Teaching and variations in instruction effects are variables that will be eliminated by using a DVD for teaching math curriculum to all students and is provided by the University of Chicago. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most internal and external validity issues or concerns are resolved by the method design and the mitigation of these threats are discussed in Chapter 3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most reliability internal and external issues or concerns are resolved by the method design and procedures. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This research study will accommodate all National Institute of Health (NIH) policies and guidelines for research on human subjects. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The study is specific to the population of third grade children engage in multiplication activities concerning math performance who are from several school districts in one state. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The major delimitation is the sample since there will be students from different school districts that may volunteer to participate in this research project. There is no opportunity to randomly select students from various school districts since they will be volunteers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There many areas of third grade math covered but this study will only focus on the multiplication component. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The delimitations include controlling for construct validity, confounding variables, strength of causal inference, measurement issues and possible sources of bias. These factors will be discussed and described in Chapter 3.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Internal Validity **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">History – The video game is only available to the treatment or intervention group and not the control group.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Maturation – The developmental change will only occur in two groups since all groups receive the post test but not all groups receive the pre- test.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Testing – The testing effects is determined with the experimental and control groups lacking the pre-test, the main effect of testing and interaction of testing with X (video game) can be statistically determined.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Instrumentation – The pre-test and post-test will not have the same content, the problems will be different but still they will be multiplication problems.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statistical Regression – The pre-test will be reliable and participants will not be assigned to treatment groups based on pre-test scores. Statistical regression occurs when the pre-test measure lacks reliability and study participants are assigned to treatment groups based on pre-test scores. Any gains or losses indicated by the post-test are misleading.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Selection – Although the participants cannot be randomly selected from the general population because they will be volunteers, they can be randomly assigned to one of four groups.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mortality – This refers to the likely hood of participants dropping out of the research study. Increasing the number of participants per group could minimize mortality effects.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Interaction of Selection, Maturation etc. – This will be discussed in detail in Chapter 3.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">External Validity **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assumptions **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Scope **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Delimitations **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Limitations of Study **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This research will apply to students in after school programs in the State of New Jersey who volunteer from several school districts within the profile of the State of New Jersey as defined in the method section concerning third grade students learning multiplication. The population profile may not represent the U. S. A. national profile for students in the third grade. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There is no control for students who will volunteer to participate and parental/student assent is not guaranteed. The results of this study are limited to this particular population only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This study could be replicated to determine generalizability in other math areas outside of multiplication. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The study will cover implementation fidelity, sample properties such as gender, at it represents the larger population and other inferential statistical variables. The specific data points for statistical analysis are: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Educational technology research and guidelines has proven to be the necessary tools to assist students in their educational journey. Traditional teaching methods are no longer effective to stimulate the student educational engagement and the motivation to want to learn. This learning to learn does not stop at high school, college, or graduate school but continues over the life span of a human being. It is important to provide educators with research guidelines on technology and access to current technology that will empower them to successfully educate all human beings. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> How sure will be that the findings in this research are what happened? How is this study capable of advancing the general understanding of the problem of educating students to achieve high math performance compared to students in other countries? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to Dye et al. (2009) video gaming may provide an efficient training regimen to induce a general speeding of perceptual reaction time without decreases in accuracy of performance. The possibility that playing video games affects perceptual and cognitive skills has increased interest in video gaming as an educational tool. In terms of research endeavors, a combination of basic theoretical research combined with practical applications will produce tangible results Steen (2003) has already pointed out that students in the United States of America are behind in math. The application of this research is determine if the applied use of math by having students engage in video game in math could facilitate higher performance gains. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The following chapters covers the literature review and methodology,
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The pre-test scores of the control group.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The post-test scores of the control group.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The pre-test scores of the experimental group.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The post-test scores of the experimental group.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Implementation fidelity measures. They are described in Chapter 3.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The mean and standard deviation of all pre and post test scores for all groups will be computed.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statistical significance level.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Significance of Study **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 2 Literature Review ** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Some students need an intervention tool that would enable them to participate and collaborate with the teacher and other students to enhance their understanding. Kara-Soteriou (2009) investigated the technology of a Classroom Response System (CRS) to help teachers differentiate instruction in real time for those students who are too shy to reveal their lack of understanding in front of other classmates. She indicated that this type of technology is powerful when collaborating and communicating with children, who would not communicate in traditional classroom environments. This tool provides the teacher and children the freedom to ask questions in a private manner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Mundy, Kupczynski and Kee (2012) study assessed the perceptions of teachers in the TeachUp program at 250 public schools in Mississippi and Louisiana over a 4 year period. The TeachUp program provides training and coaching to teachers so they can become proficient in the use of educational technology. The teacher respondents to the questions were from 44 school districts which consisted of a sample size of 1,088 teachers. The authors discovered that the teachers trained in technology and used it contributed to increased student achievement. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">? For four decades video games were played as the best leisure and engagement to be entertained. Modern theories of effective learning suggest that learning is effective when students are actively participating, discovering experimentally, problem based to invoke critical thinking skills and provides immediate feedback (Boyle, Connolly and Hainey, 2011). They point out that video games used as an educational technology tool have the potential to offer these features. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Foshay (2013) stated: ”To see what makes a serious game effective, we need to look at games from two perspectives: the gaming perspective, which focuses on what makes the game engaging and fun, and the simulation perspective, which focuses on what makes the game teach worthwhile knowledge and skills." Although he was providing guidelines to determine effective game use concerning on the job performance the same knowledge and skill gain could be true for all learners’ even children. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Dewey (1916/1938) stated “Sharing in actual pursuit, whether directly or vicariously in play, is at least personal and vital. These qualities compensate, in some measure, for the narrowness of available opportunities. Formal instruction easily becomes remote and dead, abstract and bookish to use ordinary words of depreciation. What accumulated knowledge exists in low grade societies is at least put into practice; it is transmuted into character; it exists with depth of meaning that attaches to its coming within urgent daily interests.” Is the immediate application and use of learned subject matter the essence of the learning process? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This particular research study presented here is design to answer in part this question. Each generation of students from K to 12 high school offers and identifies the challenges to providing students with a qualitative education that leads to a productive civilian life and positive social change for their families and communities. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This section reviews what has or has not been researched in the past that would contribute to the understanding of the impact or lack of impact of the use of technology such as video gaming in learning and proficiency in math. Technology is just beginning to become integrated in course content curriculum and students could have a good learning experience if they are taught how to learn to learn with the use of technology as a tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chess and Booth (2013) focused on new media literacy skills. They suggest that gaming in educational settings enable students to apply that knowledge in an immersive environment. The notion of learning a subject is a process but the application of that knowledge to real or virtual world environments assists in the reinforcement of that knowledge and skill. Gaming could be a very useful technology tool to enable students to apply education content as oppose to just memorizing content which would nurture critical thinking skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chapter 2 has the following sections, historical research overview which covers the time frame from 2001 to 2008, and current research which cover the time frame from 2009 to 2015. The conclusion for going forward with this research proposal is provided. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Wildeman et al., (2007) stated: Advanced game use has been far more prevalent in medical and business education, where simulation games are used for teaching medical diagnosis and business strategy. In addition there is limited evidence beyond anecdotal reportage to support the use of computer games in education (p. 14). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Connolly et al., (2012) asked the question, “What empirical evidence is there concerning the positive impacts and outcomes of computer games” (p. 662). The authors researched the literature prior to 2008 in an attempt to find answers to this question. After reviewing 129 research papers the authors suggested that it is important to consider the detail of how video games are integrated into the student’s learning experience. The results of this research will be discussed further in the current literature review section. The knowledge to be gained from this research will reveal if educational video gaming does or does not impact performance in math.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Current Research Trending (2009 – 2015) ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Abrams (2009) suggested that researchers need to acknowledge students traditional and multimodal literacy concerning learning environments. She stated that technological changes have introduced new ways of learning and the use of video gaming is a tool for learning. Abrams presented data from 3 case studies in which the students struggled in their academics in 11th grade. She discovered that using gaming the students were able to connect with the text book material because of the gaming strategy as a tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Lainema, T. (2010) stated that assessing learning in games is a difficult task. The learner learns information not intended to be learned. However this information becomes valuable and relevant to the learner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Harris (2010) investigated the impact of electronic educational technology on ninth grade students at risk in reading. This study addressed the impact of video gaming in the area of reading. The author used secondary archived data as the pretest data for 34 ninth grade students and collected post test data for a repeated measure ANOVA design. The sampling was a non-probability convenience sampling. The author stated that the small sample served as the control group. The results indicated that the reading post test scores improved by one grade level after the gaming intervention. Now the concern with this study is that it used secondary data which may have been collected with numerous internal validity issues so the results cannot be trusted. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kim and Chang (2010) performed multiple regression analysis on secondary data from 170,000 fourth grade students in math. Their results suggested that students who played computer games scored lower than students who did not play video games. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The authors reviewed the literature from 2005 to 2010 which showed mixed academic outcomes when video games in math and language are integrated into the curriculum. Kim and Chang research question was what is the relationship between video math games and performance? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The secondary data was from the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES). The data collection method was a multi-stage probability sample design by counties and schools within that county. Their results showed that students who played video games sometimes had higher math scores (N = 3,732,411, r = .031, p< .01) compared to students who played video games every day (r = .028, p < .01). It was unclear what specific questions the authors were trying to answer from this research study since there was no hypothesis or theoretical discussion in the review of the literature they reviewed. Kim and Chang presented the discussion suggested that further research should be conducted using first hand data as compared to secondary data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Peterson (2010) studied and analyzed the effect of video games in language development. He discovered that the theories of language acquisition hypothesizes that games are beneficial tools for acquiring another language. He stated that further research is required to determine the learning situations possible by using video games as educational tools. The study was week in the methodology process which is why the results were inconclusive. Chaudhary (2010) argues that the traditional learning methods are no longer effective in countries such as India such as chalk and talk teaching tools. Learning becomes most influential by combing education and entertainment or as Chaudhary (pp. 136-140) coined the concept edutainment. He indicated that this tool has transformed the education process into a fun-filled process. The outcome is a population that is 74% literate and positive social change did occur in human literacy. Chaudhary stated that educational gaming for a rapidly growing young population is an effective learning tool to improve the quality of education. Cohen (2011) online social gaming could become the educational tool of choice and could replace lectures or presentations. The author points out that gaming in the classroom could help students to learn and become useful as a teaching instrument. However there is no current empirical evidence to imply that video gaming in science and math could enhance learning ability in these subjects. However there was no real research method deployed to address the research question. Crookall (2010) suggested that the need additional research in serious gaming as a discipline. He suggests reviewing game attributes, learning outcomes and performance measurements. Games are beginning to be used in every area. The author noted that research on the application or impact of gaming on learning as a key subject area should be conducted. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Rodrigo (2011) conducted a quantitative study to examine the dynamics of cognitive affective states over time by students using a pre-algebra game. The affective states were boredom, confusion, delight, engagement, frustration, surprise and neutral. Each of these states was given a numeric code. Eight trained observers were paired to observe 40 students at the same time for 200 seconds each. The students were randomly chosen from 164 students. There was no control group and all students were exposed to the same video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rodrigo literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that engagement (63%) was the highest affective state followed by delight. The author did not report on pre-algebra game achievement scores or game performance. Corbeil and Laveault (2011) researched the validity of simulation games as a teaching strategy for the development of reasoning. Secondly the authors investigated the relationship between learning and student behavior. Two groups of undergraduate college students were given history games on international relations and one control group did not. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There were three independent variables the students, game activity and game material. The dependent variable was the history test scores. There were three hypotheses for each of the independent variables but no research questions were stated. The method consisted of using 2 experimental groups and one control group which did not play the game. This study manipulated three variables which are the participants, game activity and the material. The research questions were: Which students would benefit from the game most concerning achievement on tests? Does the gaming activity concerning changes in conditions or game scenarios favor different learning outcomes? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that the simulation game was a useful tool for learning history since the performance scores were significant (r = .53, df = 2 & 40, N = 31, F =.912 and p = .001) The results indicated that the two experimental groups did significantly better on the comprehension tests than the control group. These results indicated the need to include a control group in the methodology of all research in this area concerning research reliability and validity. Echeverri and Sadler (2011) stated that the most popular games such as SIMS, Second Life, Guitar Hero and Tetris reflect the emerging technology dependent workforce. They researched a growing body of empirical research conducted from 2004 to 2009 which supports the use of gaming in K-12 science education. Jones (2011) conducted a mix method dissertation research design on the effects of computer gaming on student motivation, math fluency and student efficacy. She used 70 3rd graders from 4 math classes and 4 teachers. Jones also used the Big BrainZ video game TimeZ attack for multiplication. Her results indicated significant increases in computation achievement in multiplication, division, and algebraic skills. There was no significant difference found in the conceptual understanding of math word problems. The four teachers taught the lessons on multiplication, distributed the pre and posttests along with the student surveys. The researcher created the pre and posttests, surveys and questionnaire. The results were presented based on a Paired Sample t-test. The qualitative analysis used content analysis to compress words into themes and categories. The level of significance was between the pre and posttests of the four experimental treatment groups since there was no control group used to compare and analyze the data results. The empirical validity of this study is questionable although this study was defended and approved. Corbeil and Laveault (2011) investigated the effect of using a history video game paired with traditional lectures in history. This study manipulated three variables which are the participants, game activity and the material. The research questions were: Which students would benefit from the game most concerning achievement on tests? Does the gaming activity concerning changes in conditions or game scenarios favor different learning outcomes? Does the nature of the game material or content influence learning outcomes? Three history classes were used as the experimental group (n=44) and one class was used as the control group (n=21). This quantitative study used six instruments to measure the dependent variable which was the post test scores. The results indicated that the experimental group post test scores were superior over the control group who received lectures only. The formal experimental group was able to acquire more knowledge in history from the game. King (2011) conducted an empirical investigation on the extent of using electronic games to help middle school students learn math. He focused on the post scores of students interacting with the math video game for seventh grade math students. The author was addressing the question of what the differences in scores would be concerning the experimental groups, Group 1 remediation and gaming, Group 2 remediation only and Group 3 control group. King used an ANCOVA design and found Group 1 scores were significantly higher than Groups 2 and 3. However the instructional stage in his methodology was taught by different teachers and teacher style could be a contributing variable. Carr (2012) conducted a quantitative, quasi-experimental study to examine the effects of iPad use as a computing device in 5th grade math achievement for students. There was a pre-test and post-test designed implemented in this study. The method and analysis included a one way ANOVA which did not show statistical differences between treatment groups. The author suggested that additional research should be conducted to identify other variables that could impact math performance other than the use of specific hardware performance such as the iPad tablet. However it is not the hardware such as tablets and smart phones but the software and Android applications that enable students to learn anywhere and everywhere. Connolly et al. (2012) conducted a literature review concerning empirical evidence on gaming and educational learning. The authors analyzed 129 scholarly peer reviewed journal articles on the impact and outcomes of video games with respect to learning outcomes. The authors noted that based on their research of the 129 articles 33 studies concerned knowledge acquisition and content understanding. They stated that these studies implemented a quasi-experimental research design which has implications concerning validity and reliability of the method in terms of the data results. Young et al. (2012) conducted a literature review to identify gaming trends for education. They reviewed over 300 journal articles to answer the research question do video games have a relationship with academic achievement in the educational curriculum for k to 12th grade? The authors discovered evidence on the benefits of video games on language learning, history and physical education but no evidence to support video games in science and math. The authors made the following recommendations to further understand and evaluate video games as learning tool across the educational curriculum. The authors suggested that future research should: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yang (2012) investigated the effectiveness of educational video gaming on learning to problem solve, the ability to motivate the learner and academic achievement or performance. The research method was quasi-experimental since the author partially randomized students to either the control or experimental groups using lots. The research was conducted over 23 weeks using 44 students ages 15 and 16 years old. The experimental group received traditional instruction and engaged in video gaming while the control group received the traditional instruction only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The analysis was a mixed ANOVA and ANCOVA strategy. The ANOVA was a two way analysis to determine changes in problem solving ability in problem solving based on game engagement by the experimental group compared to the control group use of traditional instruction only. The ANCOVA was used to analyze the effects of motivation and academic achievement. The results indicated that problem solving ability of the experimental group was higher than the control group. Gaming resulted in students being highly motivated. There was no statistical significance between the two groups on academic achievement. The author states that future research should be done to determine the effect of video game engagement on academic achievement. Razak and Connolly (2013) conducted a qualitative case study based on the following research question. What are the learning outcomes of video games and how are they assessed. The research consisted of 2 teachers and 28 students from two different schools, ages 7 and 8. The students used video games in multiplication times tables for the experimental group but the control group did not use video games but learned the multiplication tables in the traditional manner. The authors also observed the learning sessions but did not video tape them. At the end of each session the teacher and students were given a log sheet to document their experiences. The log defined what they learned, how they felt about the experience and if they would perform the task again. The results indicated that game based learning was only slightly significant in student’s achievement in learning multiplication tables. The problem with this study is that the student’s scores on the games were not analyzed in detail and there were two different teachers with different teaching styles. These variables limited the findings. However the researchers noted that game based learning has the potential of making the learning process less tedious and further research is required. Bedwell et al. (2012) produced a game attribute taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study using a cluster analysis of individual determination of game attributes. Their investigation attempted to link serious game attributes to specific categories and linked to specific learning outcomes. The authors stated this was the beginning of research to explore this area and the potential learning benefit. The authors defined a universal taxonomy of game attributes that would serve as the basis for future research on game attributes and the relationship to learning outcomes. The core game attributes as conveyed by Bedwell et al (pp. 747-752) as linked to specific learning outcomes based on their empirical investigation which they defined here. Game Attribute Learning Outcome (Bedwell et al.) Research Source Adaption Declarative Knowledge Prensky (2001) Challenge Motivation Garris et al. (2002) Conflict Declarative Knowledge Garris et al. (2002) Fantasy Motivation & Application Garris et al. (2002) & Owen (2004) Interaction Cognitive Strategies & Organization Prensky (2001) Language Motivation Owen (2004) Progress Declarative Knowledge Owen (2004) Rules/Goals Motivation & Knowledge Garris et al. (2002), Owen (2004) Sensory Stimuli Receiving/Responding Phenomenon Garris et al. (2004) ” The author suggested that this taxonomy could serve as the basis for future research identifying the relationship in game attributes and specific learning outcomes. They also noted the field of gaming and learning outcomes concerning research is in its infancy. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Clements et al. (2013) published a quantitative cluster randomized trial design which investigated a model for scaling up educational interventions. There was both a control and experimental groups which were evaluated for 2 years. Prior research by the authors identified the feasibility of using their model, sample size, research design and literature provided to be adequate. This study involved analysis of an intervention given to students in pre-k, kindergarten and first grade by tracking the students at each grade level. The analysis was to determine the effect of the TRIAD intervention which was a math game. The research question are: What is the persistence of effects of the TRIAD intervention with and without follow through on achievement in math during the first grade? Are there significant moderators of statistical significance effects? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research design was a hierarchical linear model focusing on the nested nature of the data which evaluated the effects of the interventions. The initial students who participated in this research were 1,305 but the number of students completing first grade and participating in all three phases of the design was lower (N = 750). The number of students for the three groups were TRIAD follow-through (N = 262, TRIAD no follow-through (N = 253) and control group (N = 235) which did not receive the TRIAD intervention. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that the children who received the TRIAD intervention demonstrated significantly higher math scores compared to the control group. The TRIAD group with follow-through results were ß = .139, standard error (SE) = .054, p = .01 and g = .21. The intervention with follow through was more significant in the outcome scores compared to the no follow-through and control groups. The students were tested four times over a three year period and it was unclear how the researchers controlled for testing effects. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Stansbury and Munroj (2013) published a quantitative mix design analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the effectiveness of video game use for instruction for math factorial design in a research methods course. The adult college students designed and conducted a mini0study using video game scores as the dependent variable. There was an experimental and control group which was lecture only. There was a significant effect in terms of increase in scores from the pretest outcome to the post test in knowledge content when the scores were compared to the lecture only group concerning knowledge of factorial designs based on engagement with a math video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jabbar and Felicia (2015) explored how video game engagement affects learning given game-based learning environments. The authors discovered that in the review of previous research learning outcomes were not assessed. They stated: “ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Evidence on the educational effectiveness of video games has not proven to be true because of the lack of empirical research.”
 * Described what type of software is being utilized in each study.
 * Provide in depth descriptions of the game mechanics and algorithms so that the studies can be replicated.
 * Utilize existing video gaming data conducted in the classroom and analyze existing classroom data.
 * Define pedagogical methods combined with video gaming to determine the effectiveness of video games as teaching tools.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">References

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Effect of Video Game Technology on Math Skills of Children <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">By <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Valerie Elaine Mitchell-Stevens <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">MS, Howard University, 1973 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">BS, Findlay University, 1971 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Proposal Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of    <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Requirements for the Degree of     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Doctor of Philosophy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Education: Educational Technology <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Walden University <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">May 2015

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Table of Contents **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 1 3 **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 2 26 **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 3 **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">References 41 **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 1 Introduction **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> If technology can have an impact on learning performance how can educational video gaming impact performance in specific educational curricula such as math? Several educational researchers have explored how video game engagement affects learning given game based learning environments (Ke, 2008b). However evidence on the educational effectiveness of video games is not proven to be true because of lack of empirical evidence (Connolly et al., 2012; and Young et al., 2012). Many educational games exist yet there is no empirical evidence to prove the impact on achievement in specific subject matters such as math. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Moizer and Lean (2010) identified some variables that could contribute to successful diffusion of gaming in learning and instruction. When reviewing the literature review conducted byYoung et al., (2012) who reviewed 300 peer reviewed articles and concluded that there is a lack of research on the impact of using video games as an educational tool especially in the area of learning math. They reported finding evidence for only language and physical education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Young et al., 2003 also described the learning process cycle as consisting of a set of antecedents associated with instructional technology, instructional methods, and student behavior. The authors stated further that the outcomes are learning performance, pedagogical effect, and numerical grades. Chaudhary (2010) has conducted several studies that show entertainment education is both a theoretically sound and practical approach to use as an effective tool to enhance the learning process and to keep the student engage in the learning process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The focus of this research is to determine if the use of video gaming in math increases math test scores for children more than students taught in the same way but without the video game. This study would assess the impact of using a math video game with instruction on the math problems compared to just using math instruction only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What do we know about the role educational video gaming can contribute to education performance in language arts, math, science and other academic subjects? There is the need for empirical research that identifies the relationship between educational game outcome measures and performance tests. The problem is there is not sufficient research to answer the question of whether an educational video game tool in math can increase gain scores in math. There is video games evidence to support academic value in math or science (Young et al., 2012). Do video games show demonstrable relationships to academic achievement gains when used to support the elementary curriculum? Young et al. states that research in game-based learning hints at the value of games as educational tools, there is the lack of cohesive themes in peer-reviewed articles suggests that there is missing information (pp. 80-81).

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Background ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ke (2008) conducted research to understand what impact video games would have on the school instructional system, gain scores when two groups of student’s scores are compared. The two student groups consisted of 358 students in which one group used only paper and pencil drills and the intervention group used a math video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The research question was is will the math video game be more affective in promoting math learning outcomes? The research design was a pretest – posttest quasi-experimental design. He used four video games for 5th grade students. A standard pretest to all student participants. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed to examine the main effects. The results showed that there was a significant effect of gain scores provided by the experimental group (F 15, 789 = 2.66 at p <.01 level). The author stated that computer video games in math are effective in promoting math learning outcomes. There was no discussion on how internal validity was controlled for. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Harris (2010) investigated the impact of electronic educational technology on ninth grade students at risk in reading. This study addressed the impact of video gaming in the area of reading. The author used secondary archived data as the pretest data for 34 ninth grade students and collected post test data for a repeated measure ANOVA design. The sampling was a non-probability convenience sampling. The author stated that the small sample served as the control group. The results indicated that the reading post test scores improved by one grade level after the gaming intervention. Kim and Chang (2010) performed multiple regression analysis on secondary data from 170,000 fourth grade students in math. Their results suggested that students who played computer games scored lower than students who did not play video games. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The authors reviewed the literature from 2005 to 2010 which showed mixed academic outcomes when video games in math and language are integrated into the curriculum. Kim and Chang research question was what is the relationship between video math games and performance? The secondary data was from the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES). The data collection method was a multi-stage probability sample design by counties and schools within that county. There was no research questions defined. Their results showed that students who played video games sometimes had higher math scores (N = 3,732,411, r = .031, p< .01) compared to students who played video games every day (r = .028, p < .01). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kim and Chang presented the discussion based on the research question and suggested that further research should be conducted using first hand data as compared to secondary data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The quantitative research study described by Rodrigo (2011) in which the author investigated the transition in cognitive affective states of students playing a pre-algebra game called Math Blaster. The cognitive-affective states were engagement, boredom, confusion, delight, surprise, frustration and neutral. Thirty male students were observed playing the game using paired observers for 200 seconds. The observers rated each student as being in a particular state persistently or the act of transitioning to a different cognitive-affective state. The results were reported in terms of the percentage of time participants were in one or several cognitive-affective states and the results were compared with previous research using the same methodology. The participants demonstrated 63% in the engagement followed by 22% in the boredom cognitive-affective state. This study had limitations in describing how the data was quantified, the use of all male participants, reliance on human observers which could jeopardize validity and reliability. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research participants pool consisted of 164 male students ages 13 in which 40 students were randomly selected however only 30 students actually participated because of issues concerning rater reliability using Cohen’s k =.77 which determines that the rating was not by chance. There is no support that the sample size ensures adequate power and the study designed focused on the observers, the rotation of students so that two observers did the same student at the same time. The observers recorded 720 observations for 30 students with each student observed for 200 minutes. There was no control group and all students played the math video game they just did not know that they were being observed. The observers were trained and practiced rating students before the actual study was conducted. It was not clear what statistical procedures would be executed for this study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results reflect 12 ratings per student for 30 students that played the game for 40 minutes. The researcher performed the analysis and generated two tables. One table described the seven cognitive-affective states and the percentage of time the students were observed in a state. The highest percentage was the engagement cognitive-affective state (63%), followed by boredom (22%). The second table showed D’Mello’s computed L value across students to determine the top four statistically significant cognitive-affective transitions (p //<//.05). There was no statement describing controls for data validity or reliability. The descriptive statistics were not provided in this study only between cognitive-affective transition data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The discussion centered on the persistence or lack of persistence concerning the cognitive-affective state of engagement. Students confused about the game transitioned to a different cognitive-affective state of delight. This study was conducted based on previous research by this author using the same method. The discussion focused on the limitations of this research study which should have been an improvement over the past research study. The limitations include the fact that the math video game was too simple and had very few challenges which influenced the boredom cognitive-affective state. The participants were boys ages 13 in which the results cannot be generalized to female or even mix populations reflecting different age groups. There was very little information on how the observed data was quantified, what procedures were used and no descriptive statistics were defined. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The reliability of the observers rating is still questionable concerning bias observations. The author reduced the number of participants from 40 to 30 because of this concern in the data. There is the need for automatic reporting or a mechanized reporting strategy that could minimize the bias in the observations of cognitive-affective states transitions. In addition there was no discussion on performance or achievement on the game or on the math content. The author stated that this research would determine which cognitive-affective state that persists would enhance the learning process. However the boredom cognitive-affective state was the only one that was persistent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A quantitative research study was conducted by Rodrigo (2011) in which the author investigated the transition in cognitive affective states of students playing a pre-algebra game called Math Blaster. The cognitive-affective states were engagement, boredom, confusion, delight, surprise, frustration and neutral. Thirty male students were observed playing the game using paired observers for 200 seconds. The observers rated each student as being in a particular state persistently or the act of transitioning to a different cognitive-affective state. The results were reported in terms of the percentage of time participants were in one or several cognitive-affective states and the results were compared with previous research using the same methodology. The participants demonstrated 63% in the engagement followed by 22% in the boredom cognitive-affective state. This study had limitations in describing how the data was quantified, the use of all male participants, reliance on human observers which could jeopardize validity and reliability. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research participants pool consisted of 164 male students ages 13 in which 40 students were randomly selected however only 30 students actually participated because of issues concerning rater reliability using Cohen’s k =.77 which determines that the rating was not by chance. There is no support that the sample size ensures adequate power and the study designed focused on the observers, the rotation of students so that two observers did the same student at the same time. The observers recorded 720 observations for 30 students with each student observed for 200 minutes. There was no control group and all students played the math video game they just did not know that they were being observed. The observers were trained and practiced rating students before the actual study was conducted. It was not clear what statistical procedures would be executed for this study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results reflect 12 ratings per student for 30 students that played the game for 40 minutes. The researcher performed the analysis and generated two tables. One table described the seven cognitive-affective states and the percentage of time the students were observed in a state. The highest percentage was the engagement cognitive-affective state (63%), followed by boredom (22%). The second table showed D’Mello’s computed L value across students to determine the top four statistically significant cognitive-affective transitions (p //<//.05). There was no statement describing controls for data validity or reliability. The descriptive statistics were not provided in this study only between cognitive-affective transition data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The discussion centered on the persistence or lack of persistence concerning the cognitive-affective state of engagement. Students confused about the game transitioned to a different cognitive-affective state of delight. This study was conducted based on previous research by this author using the same method. The discussion focused on the limitations of this research study which should have been an improvement over the past research study. The limitations include the fact that the math video game was too simple and had very few challenges which influenced the boredom cognitive-affective state. The participants were boys ages 13 in which the results cannot be generalized to female or even mix populations reflecting different age groups. There was very little information on how the observed data was quantified, what procedures were used and no descriptive statistics were defined. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The reliability of the observers rating is still questionable concerning bias observations. The author reduced the number of participants from 40 to 30 because of this concern in the data. There is the need for automatic reporting or a mechanized reporting strategy that could minimize the bias in the observations of cognitive-affective states transitions. In addition there was no discussion on performance or achievement on the game or on the math content. The author stated that this research would determine which cognitive-affective state that persists would enhance the learning process. However the boredom cognitive-affective state was the only one that was persistent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This study is very weak concerning the methodology and the author did acknowledge this in the limitations discussion. If the author included a sample size that is representative of the general population, used a different method strategy and performed more robust statistical procedures would improve the reliability and validity of this research study. The study does illustrate that there is a gap in the literature to confirm how educational video games can enhance math performance or math literacy. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statement of the Problem ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The problem is there is not sufficient empirical research to answer the question of whether an educational video game in math can increase gain scores in math but maintaining internal validity which is questionable in all the previous research reviewed. There is some evidence that video gaming in language arts, history and physical education increases student performance in those subject areas. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Young et al., (2012) found some research evidence to support how video games can achieve positive gain in language arts, history and certain areas of physical education (exergames) but no research was available to support the academic value of video games in the areas of science and math for the K to 12 curriculum. They reviewed over 300 peer-reviewed research articles and discovered issues in the methodology that was implemented to collect the data and the results of these studies did not demonstrate conclusive evidence to support the research question. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Connolly et al., (2012) reviewed the empirical research conducted using 9th grade to 12th grade curriculum and discovered that the literature on video games in learning outcomes is fragmented and lacks coherence based on the review of 129 peer-reviewed research articles. The problem that they discovered was in the research methodologies. The researchers indicated that given the 129 reviewed research papers 121 were reported to be quantitative but with the following breakdown. Sixty-five studies utilized quasi-experimental designs, 43 were survey designs and 12 implemented random control based designs and one study did implement a correlational design. The other 8 research designs were qualitative case studies. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The research methods identified by all the authors consisted of examining over 400 research documents in which the methodologies should have been based on randomized control environments instead of quasi-experimental design, survey, and correlational and qualitative design methods. The reason given is that randomized control environments clearly provide more rigorous evidence about the impacts of games in looking at affective outcomes. The point being there is concerned over internal and external validity control. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jabbar and Felicia (2015) conducted a systematic review of the literature and they determined that there is a lack of empirical evidence on the impact of video games on learning outcomes, and engagement. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are several questions concerning video gaming use to influence learning outcome gains. What is the relationship or the affect video games have on math score gains? What quantitative method would provide the best empirical evidence on the influence of video game use in math? Is there a statistically significant difference between achievement gains of children who are exposed to math video games as compared to those who are not exposed? **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Purpose of the Study ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The purpose of this research project is to determine if math video gaming can be used as an educational tool to increase multiplication math performance of 3rd and 4th grade students. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Research Question ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Is there a significant difference in score gains between video game usage and non-video game usage? This study will compare gaming and a placebo group’s learning gains using a pre/post-test strategy. However the proposed research design is the separate sample pretest/post- test control group design in which there are four groups. The treatment or intervention is presented to the groups as a whole generally two groups and two groups do not receive treatment. What is the significance or effect of using educational video games paired with formal instruction on student test performance? This design separates and avoids any testing effects on the treatment variable. According to Campbell and Stanley (1963) this research design minimizes internal and external validity violations. This research design method will be described further in Chapter 3. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Theoretical Construct Definition ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The components of gaming have been researched in terms of the game success which is attributed to factors such as feedback, progress status levels, degree of engagement, fantasy levels, competition, curiosity, control and motivation (Connolly et al., 2012). However there should be research that identifies the relationship between game features, outcome measures and learning style (Bedwell et al., 2012). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Meyer and Turner (2006) describe three theories that link emotions and learning, academic risk taking, flow theory and goal theory. Academic risk taking theory describes students that like challenges with difficult tasks and manage negative emotions in contrast to students that prefer simpler tasks with minimal challenges. Flow theory states that the learner is in a state of flow because they are so engaged that time and fatigue are not factors that affect performance. Goal theory states that outcomes that achieve goals result in positive emotions. The goal theory has another component which is the motivation to achieve goals. Gaming has a very high motivational component which is also linked with positive or negative emotions. Goal theory is the theoretical framework and foundation for the research project identified in this paper with the addition that multimedia learning using gaming, visuals and spoken instructions enhances the learning experience to achieve positive learning outcomes as stated by Mayer and Turner (2005). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Situated learning theory states all cognitive learning activity occurs in the context of a social situation and instances of learning transfer in situated terms (Cobb and Bowers, 1999). Situated learning theory suggests that the context or situation in which students learn impacts the degree to which educational outcomes are achieved (Utley, 2006). This situated pedagogy style that influences diverse learners which requires active engagement. It has five areas that will serve as the basis for this research project: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. Learning occurs from social interactions permitting ideas to be exchanged and modified. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Learning communities are developed to facilitate this social interaction. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">3. Learning involves gaining problem solving strategies in authentic activities. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. Collaboration with peers enhances the learning process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. Applied learning activities that engage students improve performance in that area. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The learning communities can be established by assigning students to specific groups and the social interactions can consists of collaborations in discussions and debriefing activities (Hsu & Wang, 2010). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The third dimension is the engagement of authentic activities and the activity proposed is the engagement in math and language arts video gaming. The inputs to student learning are a combination of applied technologies integrated with specific teaching methods coupled with student behaviors such as motivation to learn. The outcomes are level of student performance such as scores or grades on a test (Jabbar and Felicia, 2015). **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nature of the Study ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is a quantitative research study that will use a four group experimental design that was proposed by Solomon (1949). The random assignment to either the control or treatment groups provides the means to have the probability of being equally distributed to one of four groups (Solomon, 1949). In summary Solomon extended the use of a control group design to manage internal validity because of testing effects. This extended control group design requires two control groups, one in which receives the pre-test and the other control group does not.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The quantitative research design developed by Solomon is described in the following schematic: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Observation1 (pre-test) X (video gaming) Observation2 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Observation3 pre-test) nothing Observation4 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> X (video gaming) Observation5 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> nothing Observation6 (post-test) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Solomon stated: “By paralleling the design elements (Observation 1 through 4) with experimental and control groups lacking the pre-test, both the main effects of testing and the interaction of testing and X (video gaming) are determinable. The pre-test becomes another treatment coordinate with X and is treated as the second independent variable. The post-test scores are analyzed using 2 X 2 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).” The estimates of the main effect of X using the column means can be determined and the main effect of pretesting is determined from the row means. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">All four groups receive instructions on multiplication. The treatment or intervention is presented to the groups as a whole generally two groups and two groups do not receive treatment. This design separates and avoids any testing effects on the treatment variable. According to Campbell and Stanley (1963) this research design controls for internal and external validity are well controlled for (pp. 53-55). The design notation is: R O1 X O2 R O3 O4 R X O5 R O6

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> **Student Participants** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There will be requests for volunteer students in third grade to participate in this research project. The students will be from several school districts in the state. The students will be given a video game in return for participating in this study. The actual number of participants is define later on in this proposal. The information concerning the multiplication is provided on a DVD and the DVD is produced by the University of Chicago. The experimental groups will receive instruction or tutorial on how to play the video game which is provided by the game manufacturer. The tests (pre and posttests) are produced by the Department of Education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In hypotheses testing the level of significance for this research project is alpha = .05 based on two tailed test. All of the information provided next is based on a calculated g*power analysis so this is a quick summary. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The power will be calculated before the study and confirmed afterwards. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Use of one or two tailed test will be considered. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sample size and test for reliability will be determined <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power Calculations and Expected Effect Size
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Size of the observed differences
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha level (p=.05 or p=.01)
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Significance and Reliability of Instruments Effect Size =.50 (Large) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Effect Size = .30 (Medium) ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha (α) error probability = .05 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alpha (α ) error probability = .05 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power (1 – ß error probability) = .95 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Power (1 – β error probability) = .95 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Number of Groups = 4 (Solomon Four Group Design, 1949)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Number of Groups = 4 ||  ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Non-centrality = 3.71 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Non-centrality = 3.64 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Critical t value = 2.02 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Critical t value = 1.97 ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">df = 1, 40 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">df = 1, 132 ||

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Definitions ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Achievement Gain (multiplication) - The difference in performance in math when the treatment group scores are compared to the control group scores. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Educational Video Game – A video game that provides educational content and reinforces instruction on that content. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Edutainmemnt – The merger of video game entertainment attributes and educational software into a single product that can be used as a teaching tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Flow theory - States constantly engaged in the learning activity such that time and fatigue are not factors that affect performance. The student engagement is based on the culmination flow of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (Shernoff et al., 2003). This research project is not collecting data to support this theory. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Goal Theory – The goal theory states that learning outcomes that achieve goals result in positive emotions and includes a high motivational component (Pintrich, 2000). This research is not gathering data on constructs within goal theory. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Situated Learning – The applied performance of students engaged in an activity after receiving formal curriculum information. The student receives information, applies that information while engaged in a problem solving activity then solves the problem. Situated learning theory states all cognitive learning activity occurs in the context of a social situation and instances of learning transfer in situated terms (Cobb and Bowers, 1999). Situated learning theory suggests that the context or situation in which students learn impacts the degree to which educational outcomes are achieved (Utley, 2006). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Video Game – Video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video display device and entertains the user. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Threats to Validity ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This research will identify how threats to validity are controlled in more detail in Chapter 3 of this proposal. The type of treat is identified in this section. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Generalizability of this research will be based on and limited to the student participant demographics and other research limitations define in this proposal. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This study assumes that the educational video game tools are weighted equally being developed with the same educational components such as generating immediate feedback, rewarding and can play an important component in the educational curriculum of math as it has in other education curriculum components. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Teaching and variations in instruction effects are variables that will be eliminated by using a DVD for teaching math curriculum to all students and is provided by the University of Chicago. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most internal and external validity issues or concerns are resolved by the method design and the mitigation of these threats are discussed in Chapter 3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most reliability internal and external issues or concerns are resolved by the method design and procedures. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This research study will accommodate all National Institute of Health (NIH) policies and guidelines for research on human subjects. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The study is specific to the population of third grade children engage in multiplication activities concerning math performance who are from several school districts in one state. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The major delimitation is the sample since there will be students from different school districts that may volunteer to participate in this research project. There is no opportunity to randomly select students from various school districts since they will be volunteers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There many areas of third grade math covered but this study will only focus on the multiplication component. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The delimitations include controlling for construct validity, confounding variables, strength of causal inference, measurement issues and possible sources of bias. These factors will be discussed and described in Chapter 3.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Internal Validity **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">History – The video game is only available to the treatment or intervention group and not the control group.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Maturation – The developmental change will only occur in two groups since all groups receive the post test but not all groups receive the pre- test.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Testing – The testing effects is determined with the experimental and control groups lacking the pre-test, the main effect of testing and interaction of testing with X (video game) can be statistically determined.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Instrumentation – The pre-test and post-test will not have the same content, the problems will be different but still they will be multiplication problems.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statistical Regression – The pre-test will be reliable and participants will not be assigned to treatment groups based on pre-test scores. Statistical regression occurs when the pre-test measure lacks reliability and study participants are assigned to treatment groups based on pre-test scores. Any gains or losses indicated by the post-test are misleading.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Selection – Although the participants cannot be randomly selected from the general population because they will be volunteers, they can be randomly assigned to one of four groups.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mortality – This refers to the likely hood of participants dropping out of the research study. Increasing the number of participants per group could minimize mortality effects.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Interaction of Selection, Maturation etc. – This will be discussed in detail in Chapter 3.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">External Validity **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assumptions **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Scope **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Delimitations **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Limitations of Study **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This research will apply to students in after school programs in the State of New Jersey who volunteer from several school districts within the profile of the State of New Jersey as defined in the method section concerning third grade students learning multiplication. The population profile may not represent the U. S. A. national profile for students in the third grade. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There is no control for students who will volunteer to participate and parental/student assent is not guaranteed. The results of this study are limited to this particular population only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This study could be replicated to determine generalizability in other math areas outside of multiplication. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The study will cover implementation fidelity, sample properties such as gender, at it represents the larger population and other inferential statistical variables. The specific data points for statistical analysis are: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Educational technology research and guidelines has proven to be the necessary tools to assist students in their educational journey. Traditional teaching methods are no longer effective to stimulate the student educational engagement and the motivation to want to learn. This learning to learn does not stop at high school, college, or graduate school but continues over the life span of a human being. It is important to provide educators with research guidelines on technology and access to current technology that will empower them to successfully educate all human beings. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> How sure will be that the findings in this research are what happened? How is this study capable of advancing the general understanding of the problem of educating students to achieve high math performance compared to students in other countries? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to Dye et al. (2009) video gaming may provide an efficient training regimen to induce a general speeding of perceptual reaction time without decreases in accuracy of performance. The possibility that playing video games affects perceptual and cognitive skills has increased interest in video gaming as an educational tool. In terms of research endeavors, a combination of basic theoretical research combined with practical applications will produce tangible results Steen (2003) has already pointed out that students in the United States of America are behind in math. The application of this research is determine if the applied use of math by having students engage in video game in math could facilitate higher performance gains. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The following chapters covers the literature review and methodology,
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The pre-test scores of the control group.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The post-test scores of the control group.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The pre-test scores of the experimental group.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The post-test scores of the experimental group.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Implementation fidelity measures. They are described in Chapter 3.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The mean and standard deviation of all pre and post test scores for all groups will be computed.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Statistical significance level.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Significance of Study **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 2 Literature Review ** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Some students need an intervention tool that would enable them to participate and collaborate with the teacher and other students to enhance their understanding. Kara-Soteriou (2009) investigated the technology of a Classroom Response System (CRS) to help teachers differentiate instruction in real time for those students who are too shy to reveal their lack of understanding in front of other classmates. She indicated that this type of technology is powerful when collaborating and communicating with children, who would not communicate in traditional classroom environments. This tool provides the teacher and children the freedom to ask questions in a private manner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Mundy, Kupczynski and Kee (2012) study assessed the perceptions of teachers in the TeachUp program at 250 public schools in Mississippi and Louisiana over a 4 year period. The TeachUp program provides training and coaching to teachers so they can become proficient in the use of educational technology. The teacher respondents to the questions were from 44 school districts which consisted of a sample size of 1,088 teachers. The authors discovered that the teachers trained in technology and used it contributed to increased student achievement. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">? For four decades video games were played as the best leisure and engagement to be entertained. Modern theories of effective learning suggest that learning is effective when students are actively participating, discovering experimentally, problem based to invoke critical thinking skills and provides immediate feedback (Boyle, Connolly and Hainey, 2011). They point out that video games used as an educational technology tool have the potential to offer these features. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Foshay (2013) stated: ”To see what makes a serious game effective, we need to look at games from two perspectives: the gaming perspective, which focuses on what makes the game engaging and fun, and the simulation perspective, which focuses on what makes the game teach worthwhile knowledge and skills." Although he was providing guidelines to determine effective game use concerning on the job performance the same knowledge and skill gain could be true for all learners’ even children. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Dewey (1916/1938) stated “Sharing in actual pursuit, whether directly or vicariously in play, is at least personal and vital. These qualities compensate, in some measure, for the narrowness of available opportunities. Formal instruction easily becomes remote and dead, abstract and bookish to use ordinary words of depreciation. What accumulated knowledge exists in low grade societies is at least put into practice; it is transmuted into character; it exists with depth of meaning that attaches to its coming within urgent daily interests.” Is the immediate application and use of learned subject matter the essence of the learning process? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This particular research study presented here is design to answer in part this question. Each generation of students from K to 12 high school offers and identifies the challenges to providing students with a qualitative education that leads to a productive civilian life and positive social change for their families and communities. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This section reviews what has or has not been researched in the past that would contribute to the understanding of the impact or lack of impact of the use of technology such as video gaming in learning and proficiency in math. Technology is just beginning to become integrated in course content curriculum and students could have a good learning experience if they are taught how to learn to learn with the use of technology as a tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chess and Booth (2013) focused on new media literacy skills. They suggest that gaming in educational settings enable students to apply that knowledge in an immersive environment. The notion of learning a subject is a process but the application of that knowledge to real or virtual world environments assists in the reinforcement of that knowledge and skill. Gaming could be a very useful technology tool to enable students to apply education content as oppose to just memorizing content which would nurture critical thinking skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Chapter 2 has the following sections, historical research overview which covers the time frame from 2001 to 2008, and current research which cover the time frame from 2009 to 2015. The conclusion for going forward with this research proposal is provided. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Wildeman et al., (2007) stated: Advanced game use has been far more prevalent in medical and business education, where simulation games are used for teaching medical diagnosis and business strategy. In addition there is limited evidence beyond anecdotal reportage to support the use of computer games in education (p. 14). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Connolly et al., (2012) asked the question, “What empirical evidence is there concerning the positive impacts and outcomes of computer games” (p. 662). The authors researched the literature prior to 2008 in an attempt to find answers to this question. After reviewing 129 research papers the authors suggested that it is important to consider the detail of how video games are integrated into the student’s learning experience. The results of this research will be discussed further in the current literature review section. The knowledge to be gained from this research will reveal if educational video gaming does or does not impact performance in math.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Current Research Trending (2009 – 2015) ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Abrams (2009) suggested that researchers need to acknowledge students traditional and multimodal literacy concerning learning environments. She stated that technological changes have introduced new ways of learning and the use of video gaming is a tool for learning. Abrams presented data from 3 case studies in which the students struggled in their academics in 11th grade. She discovered that using gaming the students were able to connect with the text book material because of the gaming strategy as a tool. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Lainema, T. (2010) stated that assessing learning in games is a difficult task. The learner learns information not intended to be learned. However this information becomes valuable and relevant to the learner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Harris (2010) investigated the impact of electronic educational technology on ninth grade students at risk in reading. This study addressed the impact of video gaming in the area of reading. The author used secondary archived data as the pretest data for 34 ninth grade students and collected post test data for a repeated measure ANOVA design. The sampling was a non-probability convenience sampling. The author stated that the small sample served as the control group. The results indicated that the reading post test scores improved by one grade level after the gaming intervention. Now the concern with this study is that it used secondary data which may have been collected with numerous internal validity issues so the results cannot be trusted. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kim and Chang (2010) performed multiple regression analysis on secondary data from 170,000 fourth grade students in math. Their results suggested that students who played computer games scored lower than students who did not play video games. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The authors reviewed the literature from 2005 to 2010 which showed mixed academic outcomes when video games in math and language are integrated into the curriculum. Kim and Chang research question was what is the relationship between video math games and performance? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The secondary data was from the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES). The data collection method was a multi-stage probability sample design by counties and schools within that county. Their results showed that students who played video games sometimes had higher math scores (N = 3,732,411, r = .031, p< .01) compared to students who played video games every day (r = .028, p < .01). It was unclear what specific questions the authors were trying to answer from this research study since there was no hypothesis or theoretical discussion in the review of the literature they reviewed. Kim and Chang presented the discussion suggested that further research should be conducted using first hand data as compared to secondary data. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Peterson (2010) studied and analyzed the effect of video games in language development. He discovered that the theories of language acquisition hypothesizes that games are beneficial tools for acquiring another language. He stated that further research is required to determine the learning situations possible by using video games as educational tools. The study was week in the methodology process which is why the results were inconclusive. Chaudhary (2010) argues that the traditional learning methods are no longer effective in countries such as India such as chalk and talk teaching tools. Learning becomes most influential by combing education and entertainment or as Chaudhary (pp. 136-140) coined the concept edutainment. He indicated that this tool has transformed the education process into a fun-filled process. The outcome is a population that is 74% literate and positive social change did occur in human literacy. Chaudhary stated that educational gaming for a rapidly growing young population is an effective learning tool to improve the quality of education. Cohen (2011) online social gaming could become the educational tool of choice and could replace lectures or presentations. The author points out that gaming in the classroom could help students to learn and become useful as a teaching instrument. However there is no current empirical evidence to imply that video gaming in science and math could enhance learning ability in these subjects. However there was no real research method deployed to address the research question. Crookall (2010) suggested that the need additional research in serious gaming as a discipline. He suggests reviewing game attributes, learning outcomes and performance measurements. Games are beginning to be used in every area. The author noted that research on the application or impact of gaming on learning as a key subject area should be conducted. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Rodrigo (2011) conducted a quantitative study to examine the dynamics of cognitive affective states over time by students using a pre-algebra game. The affective states were boredom, confusion, delight, engagement, frustration, surprise and neutral. Each of these states was given a numeric code. Eight trained observers were paired to observe 40 students at the same time for 200 seconds each. The students were randomly chosen from 164 students. There was no control group and all students were exposed to the same video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rodrigo literature review period covered from 1990 to 2009 with the focus on articles generated between 2002 and 2006. There were no researches articles reviewed that were published after 2009. Although there are several journal articles that were published over the past 5 years this study focused more on reviewing articles that researched motivational levels, emotional state of participants and the use of quantified field observations based on previous research conducted by the author. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research problem was not clearly stated but based on the research questions the author wanted to know which of the cognitive-affective states persisted during game playing and what states were transition to if not continued. There was no statement of the hypotheses. The author did conduct previous research on this topic so there is bias present in presenting the literature review (Rodrigo et al., 2008). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that engagement (63%) was the highest affective state followed by delight. The author did not report on pre-algebra game achievement scores or game performance. Corbeil and Laveault (2011) researched the validity of simulation games as a teaching strategy for the development of reasoning. Secondly the authors investigated the relationship between learning and student behavior. Two groups of undergraduate college students were given history games on international relations and one control group did not. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There were three independent variables the students, game activity and game material. The dependent variable was the history test scores. There were three hypotheses for each of the independent variables but no research questions were stated. The method consisted of using 2 experimental groups and one control group which did not play the game. This study manipulated three variables which are the participants, game activity and the material. The research questions were: Which students would benefit from the game most concerning achievement on tests? Does the gaming activity concerning changes in conditions or game scenarios favor different learning outcomes? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that the simulation game was a useful tool for learning history since the performance scores were significant (r = .53, df = 2 & 40, N = 31, F =.912 and p = .001) The results indicated that the two experimental groups did significantly better on the comprehension tests than the control group. These results indicated the need to include a control group in the methodology of all research in this area concerning research reliability and validity. Echeverri and Sadler (2011) stated that the most popular games such as SIMS, Second Life, Guitar Hero and Tetris reflect the emerging technology dependent workforce. They researched a growing body of empirical research conducted from 2004 to 2009 which supports the use of gaming in K-12 science education. Jones (2011) conducted a mix method dissertation research design on the effects of computer gaming on student motivation, math fluency and student efficacy. She used 70 3rd graders from 4 math classes and 4 teachers. Jones also used the Big BrainZ video game TimeZ attack for multiplication. Her results indicated significant increases in computation achievement in multiplication, division, and algebraic skills. There was no significant difference found in the conceptual understanding of math word problems. The four teachers taught the lessons on multiplication, distributed the pre and posttests along with the student surveys. The researcher created the pre and posttests, surveys and questionnaire. The results were presented based on a Paired Sample t-test. The qualitative analysis used content analysis to compress words into themes and categories. The level of significance was between the pre and posttests of the four experimental treatment groups since there was no control group used to compare and analyze the data results. The empirical validity of this study is questionable although this study was defended and approved. Corbeil and Laveault (2011) investigated the effect of using a history video game paired with traditional lectures in history. This study manipulated three variables which are the participants, game activity and the material. The research questions were: Which students would benefit from the game most concerning achievement on tests? Does the gaming activity concerning changes in conditions or game scenarios favor different learning outcomes? Does the nature of the game material or content influence learning outcomes? Three history classes were used as the experimental group (n=44) and one class was used as the control group (n=21). This quantitative study used six instruments to measure the dependent variable which was the post test scores. The results indicated that the experimental group post test scores were superior over the control group who received lectures only. The formal experimental group was able to acquire more knowledge in history from the game. King (2011) conducted an empirical investigation on the extent of using electronic games to help middle school students learn math. He focused on the post scores of students interacting with the math video game for seventh grade math students. The author was addressing the question of what the differences in scores would be concerning the experimental groups, Group 1 remediation and gaming, Group 2 remediation only and Group 3 control group. King used an ANCOVA design and found Group 1 scores were significantly higher than Groups 2 and 3. However the instructional stage in his methodology was taught by different teachers and teacher style could be a contributing variable. Carr (2012) conducted a quantitative, quasi-experimental study to examine the effects of iPad use as a computing device in 5th grade math achievement for students. There was a pre-test and post-test designed implemented in this study. The method and analysis included a one way ANOVA which did not show statistical differences between treatment groups. The author suggested that additional research should be conducted to identify other variables that could impact math performance other than the use of specific hardware performance such as the iPad tablet. However it is not the hardware such as tablets and smart phones but the software and Android applications that enable students to learn anywhere and everywhere. Connolly et al. (2012) conducted a literature review concerning empirical evidence on gaming and educational learning. The authors analyzed 129 scholarly peer reviewed journal articles on the impact and outcomes of video games with respect to learning outcomes. The authors noted that based on their research of the 129 articles 33 studies concerned knowledge acquisition and content understanding. They stated that these studies implemented a quasi-experimental research design which has implications concerning validity and reliability of the method in terms of the data results. Young et al. (2012) conducted a literature review to identify gaming trends for education. They reviewed over 300 journal articles to answer the research question do video games have a relationship with academic achievement in the educational curriculum for k to 12th grade? The authors discovered evidence on the benefits of video games on language learning, history and physical education but no evidence to support video games in science and math. The authors made the following recommendations to further understand and evaluate video games as learning tool across the educational curriculum. The authors suggested that future research should: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yang (2012) investigated the effectiveness of educational video gaming on learning to problem solve, the ability to motivate the learner and academic achievement or performance. The research method was quasi-experimental since the author partially randomized students to either the control or experimental groups using lots. The research was conducted over 23 weeks using 44 students ages 15 and 16 years old. The experimental group received traditional instruction and engaged in video gaming while the control group received the traditional instruction only. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The analysis was a mixed ANOVA and ANCOVA strategy. The ANOVA was a two way analysis to determine changes in problem solving ability in problem solving based on game engagement by the experimental group compared to the control group use of traditional instruction only. The ANCOVA was used to analyze the effects of motivation and academic achievement. The results indicated that problem solving ability of the experimental group was higher than the control group. Gaming resulted in students being highly motivated. There was no statistical significance between the two groups on academic achievement. The author states that future research should be done to determine the effect of video game engagement on academic achievement. Razak and Connolly (2013) conducted a qualitative case study based on the following research question. What are the learning outcomes of video games and how are they assessed. The research consisted of 2 teachers and 28 students from two different schools, ages 7 and 8. The students used video games in multiplication times tables for the experimental group but the control group did not use video games but learned the multiplication tables in the traditional manner. The authors also observed the learning sessions but did not video tape them. At the end of each session the teacher and students were given a log sheet to document their experiences. The log defined what they learned, how they felt about the experience and if they would perform the task again. The results indicated that game based learning was only slightly significant in student’s achievement in learning multiplication tables. The problem with this study is that the student’s scores on the games were not analyzed in detail and there were two different teachers with different teaching styles. These variables limited the findings. However the researchers noted that game based learning has the potential of making the learning process less tedious and further research is required. Bedwell et al. (2012) produced a game attribute taxonomy based on a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study using a cluster analysis of individual determination of game attributes. Their investigation attempted to link serious game attributes to specific categories and linked to specific learning outcomes. The authors stated this was the beginning of research to explore this area and the potential learning benefit. The authors defined a universal taxonomy of game attributes that would serve as the basis for future research on game attributes and the relationship to learning outcomes. The core game attributes as conveyed by Bedwell et al (pp. 747-752) as linked to specific learning outcomes based on their empirical investigation which they defined here. Game Attribute Learning Outcome (Bedwell et al.) Research Source Adaption Declarative Knowledge Prensky (2001) Challenge Motivation Garris et al. (2002) Conflict Declarative Knowledge Garris et al. (2002) Fantasy Motivation & Application Garris et al. (2002) & Owen (2004) Interaction Cognitive Strategies & Organization Prensky (2001) Language Motivation Owen (2004) Progress Declarative Knowledge Owen (2004) Rules/Goals Motivation & Knowledge Garris et al. (2002), Owen (2004) Sensory Stimuli Receiving/Responding Phenomenon Garris et al. (2004) ” The author suggested that this taxonomy could serve as the basis for future research identifying the relationship in game attributes and specific learning outcomes. They also noted the field of gaming and learning outcomes concerning research is in its infancy. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Clements et al. (2013) published a quantitative cluster randomized trial design which investigated a model for scaling up educational interventions. There was both a control and experimental groups which were evaluated for 2 years. Prior research by the authors identified the feasibility of using their model, sample size, research design and literature provided to be adequate. This study involved analysis of an intervention given to students in pre-k, kindergarten and first grade by tracking the students at each grade level. The analysis was to determine the effect of the TRIAD intervention which was a math game. The research question are: What is the persistence of effects of the TRIAD intervention with and without follow through on achievement in math during the first grade? Are there significant moderators of statistical significance effects? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The research design was a hierarchical linear model focusing on the nested nature of the data which evaluated the effects of the interventions. The initial students who participated in this research were 1,305 but the number of students completing first grade and participating in all three phases of the design was lower (N = 750). The number of students for the three groups were TRIAD follow-through (N = 262, TRIAD no follow-through (N = 253) and control group (N = 235) which did not receive the TRIAD intervention. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The results indicated that the children who received the TRIAD intervention demonstrated significantly higher math scores compared to the control group. The TRIAD group with follow-through results were ß = .139, standard error (SE) = .054, p = .01 and g = .21. The intervention with follow through was more significant in the outcome scores compared to the no follow-through and control groups. The students were tested four times over a three year period and it was unclear how the researchers controlled for testing effects. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Stansbury and Munroj (2013) published a quantitative mix design analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the effectiveness of video game use for instruction for math factorial design in a research methods course. The adult college students designed and conducted a mini0study using video game scores as the dependent variable. There was an experimental and control group which was lecture only. There was a significant effect in terms of increase in scores from the pretest outcome to the post test in knowledge content when the scores were compared to the lecture only group concerning knowledge of factorial designs based on engagement with a math video game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jabbar and Felicia (2015) explored how video game engagement affects learning given game-based learning environments. The authors discovered that in the review of previous research learning outcomes were not assessed. They stated: “ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Evidence on the educational effectiveness of video games has not proven to be true because of the lack of empirical research.”
 * Described what type of software is being utilized in each study.
 * Provide in depth descriptions of the game mechanics and algorithms so that the studies can be replicated.
 * Utilize existing video gaming data conducted in the classroom and analyze existing classroom data.
 * Define pedagogical methods combined with video gaming to determine the effectiveness of video games as teaching tools.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">References

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