Dragon fighting board game : A case study of finding greatest common divisors through a manipulative-based game

Abstract

Nowadays, innovation and knowledge have been the primary key to drive the economy, intense competition, and constant renewal occupying the marketplaces in the modern world. They have harmonized with the idea that students need new ways of learning to be successful. As mathematics is sufficiently significant for human thinking, it ought to have a regular place in the school curriculum. Thus, this research aims to create a mathematics educational tool named 'Dragon Fighting Board Game or DFBG' to promote students' construction of mathematical understanding. The game was designed based on game-based learning pedagogy integrating with manipulatives media. Moreover, the researcher recruited 9 grade 5 students and examined DFBG in particular how the game could promote the students' a construction of methods of finding the Greatest Common Divisor (GCD), and their attitudes toward DFBG. Data triangulation, including video recording, interviews, and questionnaires, was used in this research. The findings indicated that students could construct varieties of methods to find GCD by themselves when they were engaged in the game with a manipulatives tool. However, all participants developed their understanding in different ways and different levels of methods. Numeracy background and usage of manipulatives influenced participants' solutions. In part of the attitude, all participants had a high satisfaction towards DFBG. However, the results indicated that participants who had the lowest level of mathematics background had a positive attitude towards DFBG higher than other groups in the majority of questions.