So the kids are busy, what now? Teacher perceptions of the use of hand-held game consoles in West Australian primary classrooms

Abstract

Games technology in the form of hand-held game consoles (HGCs) when focussed on specific academic skill development has the capacity to engage students in learning and in turn produce positive academic results. This current research explores teacher perceptions of the implementation of HGCs to enhance the development of mental maths skills (namely the recall of single digit addition, subtraction and multiplication sums) in nine Year 4 classrooms and, through a series of structured interviews and observations, categorises these educators in terms of their role in the classroom. It was hypothesised that the teaching style would impact on the student's motivation and engagement when using the HGCs, however, it became evident that by maintaining set classroom structures the HGCs appeared to have the capacity to engage and motivate students, regardless of the approach of the teacher.