Teach Middle East Magazine Jan - Mar 2020 Issue 2 Volume 7 | Page 27
LEARNING TO LOVE MATH
Finnish digital learning platform Eduten Playground helps
students get excited about their math program.
In the middle of the hustle and
noise of students enjoying their
recess during the school day at a
school in Dubai, math teacher
Niokah explains her experience of
teaching using the Eduten
Playground platform. "The amount
of student engagement
experienced while using Eduten
was probably the best I've seen in
all my 15 years of teaching math!"
She explained. She and her class
have taken part in the Eduten
Playground research pilot, which
was conducted in two GEMS
schools. Eduten Playground is a
digital learning platform, developed
in Finland. GEMS Education is one
of the world's oldest and largest K-
12 private education providers.
Towards a more
personalised learning
experience
The story of the Eduten
Playground's story began back
when digital learning was still just
a distant dream – a bit of a folly
some might have thought – but a
group of Finnish PhD students
doing their research at The
University of Turku took the on the
task of developing modern-day
teaching methods very seriously.
They wanted to create a platform,
which would motivate children to
learn and help with the task of
grading assignments and exams
automatically, thus freeing teachers
time to interact with students. With
the data collected while using
Eduten Playground, teachers can
also prevent problems by
automatically identifying students'
strengths and weaknesses. Also,
this helps to create more
personalised learning
experiences. Now, 15 years later,
Eduten Playground is being used
by schools in more than thirty
countries – including the UAE.
Eye-catching results
GEMS World Academy and GEMS
United School participated in the
study with the Eduten Playground.
In these schools, eight classes of
3rd-grade students took part in the
research pilot. The students were
divided into control and treatment
groups. The control groups studied
math with teachers using existing
teaching methods at the school,
and the treatment group used the
Eduten Playground for eight weeks
during one weekly lesson at school
and for homework.
Both groups did pre- and post-study
tests which measured their
mathematical skills. The results
were eye-catching. Arithmetic
fluency improved over 29% in
GEMS United School, and
mathematics performance improved
more than 51% in GEMS World
Academy after using the Eduten
Playground compared to more
traditional teaching methods.
Gamification makes learning
fun
The main reasons for this
accelerated learning were, the hard
work, the students, put in, and the
improvements brought about by the
use of Eduten Playground. With
Eduten Playground, the average
amount of completed math tasks per
week per student was approximately
260. It is important to note that
during more traditional math
lessons, the amount of calculations
usually ranges between 20–60 –
and this is the best-case scenario. It
is no wonder that the learning
results significantly improved.
The platform uses gamification to
increase students' motivation and
engagement with learning. Also,
with the Eduten Playground,
students get instant feedback on
their work, which inspires them to
work harder towards achieving
trophies and results. With Eduten
Playground, students feel safe to
learn, to fail and to try harder next
time.
To learn more about the pilot contact:
[email protected]