TY - GEN
T1 - Investigating the effects of mindfulness meditation on a digital learning game for mathematics
AU - Nguyen, Huy A.
AU - Takacs, Zsofia K.
AU - Bereczki, Enikő O.
AU - Richey, J. Elizabeth
AU - Mogessie, Michael
AU - McLaren, Bruce M.
PY - 2022/7/27
Y1 - 2022/7/27
N2 - Mindfulness has been shown in prior studies to be an effective device to help students develop self-regulatory skills, including executive functions. However, these effects have been rarely tested at scale in technology-assisted learning systems such as digital learning games. In this work, we investigate the effects of mindfulness in the context of playing and learning with Decimal Point, a digital learning game for mathematics. We conducted a study with 5th and 6th grade students in which three conditions were compared - the game with short mindfulness meditations integrated, the game with similar-length, age-appropriate stories integrated, and the game in its original form. From the study results, we found no differences in time spent on the game, error rates while playing, or learning outcomes across the three conditions. Embedding mindfulness prompts within the game did not enhance learning or change students’ gameplay behaviors, which suggests that we may not have successfully induced a state of mindfulness or that mindfulness is not beneficial for learning within digital learning games. We discuss the challenges of incorporating individual mindfulness meditations in elementary and middle school classrooms.
AB - Mindfulness has been shown in prior studies to be an effective device to help students develop self-regulatory skills, including executive functions. However, these effects have been rarely tested at scale in technology-assisted learning systems such as digital learning games. In this work, we investigate the effects of mindfulness in the context of playing and learning with Decimal Point, a digital learning game for mathematics. We conducted a study with 5th and 6th grade students in which three conditions were compared - the game with short mindfulness meditations integrated, the game with similar-length, age-appropriate stories integrated, and the game in its original form. From the study results, we found no differences in time spent on the game, error rates while playing, or learning outcomes across the three conditions. Embedding mindfulness prompts within the game did not enhance learning or change students’ gameplay behaviors, which suggests that we may not have successfully induced a state of mindfulness or that mindfulness is not beneficial for learning within digital learning games. We discuss the challenges of incorporating individual mindfulness meditations in elementary and middle school classrooms.
KW - decimal numbers
KW - digital learning games
KW - middle school math
KW - mindfulness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135960734&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-11644-5_80
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-11644-5_80
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85135960734
SN - 9783031116438
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 762
EP - 767
BT - Artificial Intelligence in Education - 23rd International Conference, AIED 2022, Proceedings
A2 - Rodrigo, Maria Mercedes
A2 - Matsuda, Noburu
A2 - Cristea, Alexandra I.
A2 - Dimitrova, Vania
PB - Springer
T2 - 23rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, AIED 2022
Y2 - 27 July 2022 through 31 July 2022
ER -