Can Dr Kawashima impact on maths? LTS extended study suggests it can

I have just returned from a meeting with my colleague Dr David Miller from the University of Dundee. I went to David some time ago with my Dr Kawashima idea along with a rough sketch of the methodology that I hoped to use. Those early meetings led to David coming on board to partner me on the work that I have been doing in putting Dr Kawashima for the Nintendo DS into schools.

We carried out a small scale intervention last year and this had such a dramatic impact that it was decided that Learning and Teaching Scotland would fund a much more extensive study in terms of increasing the sample size. As a result we put 16 class sets of Nintendo DS into schools across Scotland and used 16 classes as control groups. Pre and post tests were used to gather the data and since the project finished David has been doing the number crunching as well as beginning to tutor me in the art of SPSS!

This post is just a wee announcement to say that the results so far appear to be very interesting and significant. I don't want to say too much at this stage because we are sharing the results at a seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival on 25th September but what I would say is that the initial study received a wee bit of criticism due to the small sample, however, this extended sample size will undoubtedly allow us to make a much more solid case for what we have found. And what we have found is most certainly of interest to teachers, schools, education managers and even higher I believe. Oh, the games industry might want to take note too....

It'd be great to see you at SLF '08 and even better if you can get along to hear how Dr Kawashima CAN make an impact on children's learning.

Comments

[Dave Thomson]

Hello Derek, long time no see!

Thought you might be interested in this event in Arbroath where an American educator who I rank as similar to A.S. Neill will be speaking. He left teaching as he claimed he no longer wanted to harm children and has since spent his time unearthing the history of schooling in the states. Taught in some of the roughest schools in NYC, so quite an interesting character.

For more see here
http://oneducation.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/john-taylor-gatto-to-visit-scotland/

[Ewan McIntosh]

Ooh, you tease... I could've guessed that the bigger sample, rather than replicating the smaller one would probably bring to light what those of us who've played the game have discovered. Can't wait (though we'll clearly have to! :-)

[jaye richards]

..but in any case, small sample size can be negated by the right statistical analysis. A good anova or t-test can still give you an accurate indication of probability even in small samples (i.e. one class).
I'm looking forward to reading your research...