THE DEVELOPMENT OF ICT-ASSISTED EDUCATIONAL MATH GAME “GAMA” WITH CONTEXTUAL TEACHING LEARNING APPROACH

(1)

Daya Matematis : Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan Matematika

Volume, 11 Nomor 3 December 2023 Hal. 173- 183 p-ISSN:2541-4232 dan e-ISSN: 2354-7146

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ICT-ASSISTED EDUCATIONAL MATH GAME

“GAMA” WITH CONTEXTUAL TEACHING LEARNING APPROACH

Rafiantika Megahnia Prihandini^1*, Susi Setiawani², Orel Revo Sackhi Usdelivian³

1 The Study Program of Mathematics Education, Universitas Jember Email: [email protected]

2,3 The Study Program of Mathematics Education, Universitas Jember Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Educational math game creates a fun learning experience for students. Following this rationale, this research-and-development study aims to elaborate on the process of developing ICT-assisted instructional media named “GAMA”, an educational math game tailored to Contextual Teaching Learning approach. We analyzed the feasibility of the game media to support the instruction on the concept of numbers at the first grade of elementary education. The subjects of this research were the first-grade elementary school students. The study applied the ADDIE development model consisting of five stages with an evaluation at each stage. The research results demonstrated that the game achieved a decent validity score. The practicality test, conducted through questionnaires and observations, documented a practicality score of 90.36%. In addition, the game satisfied the effectiveness test as evaluated through the comparison of students’ learning outcomes based on the N-Gain score of 0.76. This implied a significant difference between students' understanding before and after using educational math games.

Keywords: Contextual Teaching Learning, ICT, Research and Development

INTRODUCTION

The essential of learning mathematics from an early age highlights the need for special attention to students’ learning. This becomes increasingly crucial for mathematics is oftentimes seen as an unattractive subject for some students. Students' reluctance to learn mathematics is driven by their difficulty in learning mathematics. Observations made at a partner elementary school showed that teachers still used books in the learning process. They seemed to struggle using technology-assisted media as a means of developing creative and innovative instructional media. Meanwhile, students were not actively involved in the learning process because of the limitation of textbooks and the strong emphasis on teacher-centered classes. By implication, a low rate of students’ involvement will only create a monotonous learning experience, which results in declining motivation over time.

Furthermore, such meaningless learning will only result in a low rate of students’ comprehension.

One measure to address this issue is through developing ICT-assisted “GAMA” educational math game through the Contextual Teaching Learning (CTL) Approach. Instructional media play an important component in the learning process by stimulating students' cognition and encouraging active student involvement. Piaget stated that students at the age of 6-12 years are limited to concrete operational thinking. At this stage, students will find it easier to learn the subject matter associated with real-life experiences. This implies the need to develop instructional media supportive to appropriate instructional methods, models, or approaches. In this regard, the Contextual Teaching Learning approach can facilitate teachers in drawing the connection between their lessons and everyday life. This approach enables the delivery of number material in a way that is easier to comprehend due to the strong association with students’ background knowledge. Numbers are always

(Received: 23-08-2023 Reviewed: 23-08-2023; Revised: 14-11-2023; Accepted: 14-11-2023; Published: 28-12-2023)

(2)

Daya Matematis: Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan Matematika, Vol. 11 No. 3 December 2023

associated with real-life problems, especially in counting things in large quantities. Therefore, the material is considered highly important to learn. One of the basic abilities in learning mathematics is understanding the concept of numbers and their operations. The development of instructional media, therefore, needs to be aligned with the achievement of these basic abilities.

The rapid development of technology has influenced numerous aspects, one of which is education. This is mirrored in the shifts to ICT-assisted learning resources and media. ICT is also inseparable from the students’ habits where they have become accustomed to operating gadgets. As such, teachers are required to develop instructional media integrated with ICT. Educational game media needs to aim at specific instructional objectives tailored to students’ needs in achieving these learning objectives. In the same vein, the educational game can help to address the negative effects caused by the use of gadgets. This is made possible by harnessing the power of ICT to develop active students’ engagement and increased learning motivation to complete every challenge in the game.

Arifah et al. conducted research entitled Development of Bilomatics Educational Games to Improve Student Learning Outcomes in Mathematics Subjects for Grade 1 at Elementary School. The research aimed at developing the game through the use of Adobe Audition, Photoshop, and CorelDraw. However, they have not used online applications or appropriate learning models or approaches. Likewise, Ervan et al. in their research entitled the development of an Android-Based

“Physics Word” Educational Game for Elementary School Children on Style Concept Materials have yet to involve an appropriate learning model or approach in developing an educational game with the aid of online applications. In addition, Winarni et al. have demonstrated the advantage of Corel Draw X7 for developing science adventure educational games to improve students' problem-solving skills despite the absence of ICT integration. Some other research related to game development include [Cetin, Erfan, Lavin Mera, Olszewski, Widyasari]

In this scenario, the researchers aim at developing instructional media for educational math games through the following procedure as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Procedure in Developing Educational Math Game

METHOD

This research-and-development study followed the ADDIE model. This model consists of five stages, with an evaluation accompanying each stage. These five stages involve Analysis (A), Evaluation, Design (D), Evaluation, Development (D), Evaluation, Implementation (I), and Evaluation (E). The following is the flow of instructional media development with the ADDIE model.

Material Man & Mind Power

Method Tools

Using Geyser and Canva in developing educational

math game

Identifying the instructional objectives and

relevant media Identifying the integration

between the game and Contextual Teaching

approach Analyzing teacher

and students’

needs Optimal development of

ICT-assisted math game “GAMA” through Contextual Teaching Learning approach

Testing the math game for its validity, effectiveness, and

practicality

(3)

Daya Matematis: Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan Matematika, Vol. 11 No. 3 Desember 2023

175 Figure 2. The ADDIE Model

After going through the five stages of development, data analysis was then carried out. The data analysis focused on the instructional media and student learning outcomes. The analysis of instructional media tapped upon the validity, effectiveness, and practicality of the instructional media for the educational game "GAMA", while the analysis of student learning outcomes was done by administering an achievement test on the concept of numbers. Data analysis was divided according to these analysis objects, as described below.

The Analysis of Instructional Media Validity

The results of the validity assessment were calculated based on the average of each aspect contributing to the validity criteria of the instructional media. What followed are the steps in assessing the validity.

1) Performing validity test on Aspect (Ai), Indicator ( Ii), and Value (Va).

2) Calculating the average of each indicator using the following formula:

1 n

j i j i

V

I n

=



= j

Vi : Validity score from the j^th validator for the i^th indicator n : the number of validators

3) Calculating the average of each aspect using the following formula:

1 mk

i j k

k

I

A m

=



=

Ak : the average for the k^th aspect

mk : the number of indicators for the k^th aspect

4) Calculating the average of all aspects using the following formula:

1 p

k k a

A

V p

=



= Analysis

Design

Development Evaluation Implementation

Revisi on

Revisi on Revisi on

Revisi on

Analyzing the research location, potential, problems, and student development.

Determining game design, linking learning material with game, and framing math educational game

Developing educational math game, validating the game, and testing its effectiveness and practicality

Applying educational math game in the learning process and developing assessment instruments to test student learning outcomes.

(4)

Va: the average of all aspects p: the number of aspects

The overall results of the abovementioned calculations are interpreted based on the classification in Table 1.

Table 1. The criteria of media validity

Value (V^a ) Criteria

Invalid Hardly valid

Fairly Valid Valid Highly Valid The Analysis of Media Practicality

Media practicality data represented the extent to which instructional media was applicable in a real setting. Hereunder are the steps for analyzing the media practicality.

1) Determining the sum of scores from all meetings

2) Calculating the score percentage using the formula below:

ST 100%

SR=SM  SR : practicality score

ST : total score of practicality SM: expected maximum score

3) Drawing conclusions from the identified level of practicality. The instructional media need to satisfy at least the fairly valid level to be considered practical. Anything below this level is considered impractical. The following criteria for the average percentage of observations are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. The Criteria of Instructional Media Practicality

Score Criteria

Highly practical Practical Fairly practical

Impractical Highly impractical (Adapted from Akbar, 2011)

The Analysis of Media Effectiveness

The analysis of media effectiveness was performed through the N-Gain Score obtained from comparing the students’ pre- and post-test scores. The results would serve as the basis to determine the extent to which the media were deemed effective to support the achievement of learning outcomes.

Here's the N-Gain Score Calculation Formula:

Pr Pr SkorPosttes Skor etes N Gain

SkorIdeal Skor etes

− = −

− Table 3. The Category of N-Gain Score

Score Category

0, 7

N−Gain High

0, 3 −N Gain0, 7 Medium

0, 3

N−Gain ^Low

(5)

177 Table 4. The Category of N-Gain Score Interpretation

% Category

40 Ineffective

40%55 Hardly effective

55%75 Fairly effective

75 ^Effective

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

In this section, the research results and discussion will elaborate on the development of the educational math game "GAMA".

Research Result

The validity test of instructional media consists of three aspects, namely content, language, and format. The validation was performed by using Likert-scale questions with a score range of 1 - 4. The validation results from two validators are presented in Table 5.

Table 5. The Validation Results on “GAMA”

No Aspect Indicators

Score

Ii

1 Content 1. The relevance of the media to the competence standard and basic competence

4 4 4

2. The relevance of the learning material in the media to the instructional objectives

4 3 3,5

3. The clarity of items in the media 3 4 3,5

4. The accuracy of answer keys 4 4 4

A1 ^3,75

2 Language 1. The language acceptability according to common linguistic rules in Bahasa Indonesia

3 4 3,5

2. The use of communicative language 3 3 3

A2 ^3,25

3 Format 1. The superiority of the developed media over the existing media

4 4 4

2. The appropriateness of the size of texts and pictures 4 3 3,5 3. The clarity of the manual of the media 3 4 3,5 4. Creativity and innovation of the media 4 3 3,5 5. The appropriateness of buttons in the media 4 3 3,5

A3 ^3,6

Va ^3,53

Based on the validation results from the two validators, the media achieved a score of 3.53. This implied that the media had satisfied the valid level.

The practicality test was carried out to find out whether the instructional media would aid the teacher in delivering lessons on the concept of numbers to students. The practicality test was carried out by looking at the responses to the questionnaires filled out by students and teachers. In addition, we also observed the students’ engagement during the learning process. Furthermore, the scores obtained were analyzed quantitatively by calculating the total score of all indicators to determine the practicality of the educational game media "GAMA".

(6)

Table 6. The Results of Practicality Test of “GAMA”

No Aspects Average Practicality

Score Criteria

1 The attractiveness of the media 3,67 91,67% Very Good

2 The ease of accessing the media 3,55 90,63% Very Good

3 The message clarity 3,6 90% Very Good

4 The coverage of learning resources 3,57 89,17% Good

Overall, the average score for the practicality test is 3.6 with a percentage of 90.36%, meaning that it fits the criteria very well. The teacher's activity while using the educational game media "GAMA"

observed by the observer is also part of the practicality test of the instructional media. Table 7 is the result of the recapitulation of teacher activities that have been observed by the observer.

Table 7. The Results of Practicality Test based on Observation of Teachers’ Activity

No Aspects Score Practicality Score Criteria

1 The teacher finds it easy to use "GAMA"

educational math game media during the learning process.

4 100% Very Good

2 The teacher can operate the media easily.

3 75% Fairly Good

3 The media can be applied within the

specified learning duration. 4 100% Very Good

4 The media help the students to

comprehend the concept of numbers. 3 75% Fairly Good

5 The media helps to increase students’

engagement and motivation. 3 75% Fairly Good

6 The students can easily learn math by

using the media. 4 100% Fairly Good

7 The media include topics associated with

the concept of numbers. 3 75% Fairly Good

8 The media supports students’ autonomous learning to comprehend the concept of numbers.

9 The media suits the learning principles of the Contextual Teaching Learning approach.

10 The media can engage students actively in

group work. 4 100% Very Good

Average scores 3.63 91% Very Good

The effectiveness test of "GAMA" educational math game was carried out to find out whether the media could aid the students to achieve learning objectives. The test was carried out by looking at the N-Gain scores of student learning outcomes. Table 8 shows the descriptive statistics of the N – Gain score obtained from the learning outcomes of 20 students, comparing their post-test and pre-test scores.

Table 8. The Students’ N-Gain Score

Score Number of Students Category

0, 3 −N Gain0, 7 ₅ _Medium

0, 7

N−Gain 15 High

(7)

179 The calculation results of the N-Gain score report that 5 students fall into the medium category and 15 students are in the high category. The lowest score is 0.63, while the highest score is 0.87.

Table 9. Descriptive Statistics of N-Gain Score

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

N_Gain_Score 20 .63 .87 .7579 .08042

N_Gain_Persen 20 63.27 87.23 75.7910 8.04221

Valid N (listwise) 20

The data in Table 9 demonstrate that the average N–Gain score is 0.76 > 0.7 which means that the N – Gain score is high and the N–Gain score percentage is 75.79%, implying that the use of game media

"GAMA" can improve students' understanding of the concepts of numbers.

DISCUSSION

This research-and-development study employed the ADDIE model to develop "GAMA" educational math game. This model was chosen because the ADDIE model is often used to describe a systematic approach to instructional development. In addition, the ADDIE model is a general learning model and is deemed suitable for development research. This media development model consists of five stages which are elaborated as follows.

Analysis

The analysis stage dealt with defining students' and teachers’ characteristics at the partner elementary school. The analysis involved problem identification, identification of teacher and student needs, and identification of tasks. The analysis was carried out by observing the learning process at the school. The observation was followed up by conducting interviews with the students and teacher. However, the ultimate goal of the analysis stage lies in identifying the students’ characteristics. Based on the results of observations, students tend to be passive in the learning process because the learning process tends to be teacher-centered. The learning innovation carried out by the teacher is still sparse, due to the emphasis on textbooks as teaching material. Monotonous learning activity also contributes to declining students' learning motivation and creativity. The analysis stage helped the researchers to decide the essential components for the development of "GAMA" educational math game. These components involve (1) determining the students’ characteristics; (2) analyzing students' learning needs; (3) creating a concept map based on the initial research and designing a flow chart describing the process of developing the "GAMA" educational math game media; (4) determining the type of media to be developed in the form of ICT-assisted games; (5) analyzing the constraints in developing the media; (6) designing an assessment to test students’ competence; (7) designing observation sheets, validation sheets consisting of three tests, i.e., validity tests, effectiveness tests, and practicality tests.

Design

The design stage aimed at designing the educational math game "GAMA" to improve students' understanding of the concept of numbers. As for this stage, the pre- and post-tests were developed based on predetermined learning indicators. The next step was designing media that can be adapted to the needs of students and teachers in learning the concept of numbers. The selected media is an educational math game that has been integrated with ICT, therefore allowing easier operation. The media was designed also in coherence with Contextual Teaching Learning (CTL) as envisaged in the lesson plans which require students to grasp lessons in specified contexts. This concept was also applied to the game development The media preparation was expected to assist students to understand the concept of numbers and to increase their learning motivation and creativity. The items in the pre- and post-test were developed based on seven indicators of CTL learning, namely: (1) Modeling, motivating the students to identify the importance of learning numbers related to problems in daily life and conveying the purpose of learning numbers; (2) Questioning, directing students to recognize numerical

(8)

symbols and guiding students to recognize the symbols; (3) Learning Community, students are grouped in small numbers and given examples of real-life cases related to numbers to learn the concept of numbers; (4) Inquiry, the students are engaged in solving number problems, such as sorting numbers from largest to smallest and vice versa; (5) Constructivism, the lesson is bound to building students’

understanding of the concept of numbers by comparing two numbers; (6) Reflection, the teacher reviews and gives feedback on the results of student works; (7) Authentic Assessment, providing an objective assessment of student work. In line with the research conducted by Sari et al., there are differences between students who engage in ICT-assisted learning process using the CTL approach and those who do not. The use of the CTL approach encourages students to be more critical and skilled to address questions easily, compared to students who learn without using the CTL approach. This study also shows that student learning outcomes in the experimental class are greater than those in the control class. This shows that the CTL approach has a positive impact on students. The game has the following learning objectives: 1) Understanding the meaning of counting objects through counting the number of objects in units and the number of objects up to 10; 2) Grouping similar objects and comparing the number of each group, with a maximum of 10 objects. 3) Counting and stating the number of items up to 10 pieces and their order correctly, 4) Understanding the meaning of numbers 0, and 5) Understanding which order of objects are more and which are fewer, and identifying objects with the same amount. Educational math game presents pre- and post-test questions that students must do before trying the games. This game has several parts. The first gives an introduction to number symbols, and students are led to read the numbers given through contextual objects usually encountered in everyday life. In the second part, students are asked to determine the number symbol in accordance with the number of objects. The third part requires students to compare and sort numbers, and the last part presents questions related to addition and subtraction through a series of stories. The following is a display of the educational math game "GAMA".

Figure 3. The Instruction Page

In the beginning, the media will present the instructions regarding the buttons used to run characters, volume, and menus. In this section, the learning objectives through educational math games are presented. In addition, pretest and post-test questions are also given, which is compulsory to complete before and after trying the game to measure students’ initial and final grade.

(9)

181 Figure 4. The Display on The Introduction to Numbers

The educational math game provides four opportunities for students to try each stage. As such, they are motivated to complete each stage despite its level of difficulty. In this game, a "Check Point" feature is also provided so that if students fail in the third stage, students do not need to start from the first stage, but simply from the previous stage.

Figure 5. The Question Display

Based on phase A, students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of whole numbers up to 10.

This game takes students’ learning through an adventure through several islands where each island has different challenges and specific questions with increasing difficulty levels. On the first island, students are given the opportunity to recognize the symbols of numbers 1 – 10 by matching objects with the number corresponding to their quantity. On the second island, students are asked to determine the appropriate symbol according to the number of objects given. On the third island, students are asked to compare two objects based on the number of objects. On the fourth island, students are asked to sort objects from the smallest to the largest number, and to state objects with the same number of items. On the last island, students are asked to solve story problems in the form of addition and subtraction involving numbers 1-10.

Development

As the name suggests, the development stage dealt with the process of making the "GAMA"

educational math game. This process was done by using Unity software. Before being implemented, the game was validated first by two validators or experts in the field of instructional media development. After the validation, improvements were made according to the validator's suggestions.

In general, the game achieved an average validation score of Va = 3.53. Several improvements or revisions were made by informing the specification for the first grade of elementary school students and related learning objectives, providing musical illustrations, and putting elementary school uniforms for the characters in the game.

Implementation

At this stage, the media was tried out through two stages; the small-scale and the large-scale test. At this stage, post-test questions were given to find out whether there were significant differences in terms of students’ grades before and after using the educational math game.

(10)

Evaluation

Based on the tryout results, qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. Qualitative data analysis was used to process the data obtained from the field tests, which served as the basis for revisions. Likewise, the quantitative analysis was conducted by assessing the student's understanding of the concept of numbers by using a questionnaire. These processes were aimed at improving the overall quality of the media, as manifested by decent content, design, and user-friendly interface. The overall analysis result marked an average score of 91%, which fell in the “very good” category.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The research results from the development of “GAMA” educational math game tailored to Contextual Teaching Learning approach have led to the following conclusions. First, the ICT-assisted “GAMA”

educational math game on the concept of numbers was successfully developed using Reiser and Mollenda’s ADDIE development model which consisted of five stages. However, the present study included evaluation at each stage, resulting in eight stages in total. The researchers used the software Unity to develop the educational math game. Second, the game was designed according to the Contextual Teaching Learning approach and the final model was found to be highly applicable for the target audience as corroborated by the quality in terms of validity, effectiveness, and practicality. The validity of the game has also satisfied valid criteria. The practicality as evaluated through questionnaires and observations documented a score of 90.36%, which means that the game is highly practical. In the same vein, the effectiveness test reported an N-Gain score of 0.76, which acknowledges a significant difference between students' understanding before and after using the game.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to express their gratitude to LP2M of Universitas Jember for their financial support through the 2022 DIPA Research Funding Program for Novice Lecturers.

REFERENCES

Akbar, Sa’dun. 2011. Pengembangan Kurikulum dan Pembelajaran Ilmu Pengetahuan Sosial.Yogyakarta: Cipta Media.

Arifah, R. E., Sukirman, S., & Sujalwo, S. (2019). Pengembangan Game Edukasi Bilomatika untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Siswa pada Mata Pelajaran Matematika Kelas 1 SD. Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Ilmu Komputer (JTIIK), 6(6).

Cetin, A., & Ince, E. Y. (2021). Development of Educational Math Game. The Eurasia Proceedings of Educational and Social Sciences, 23, 67-73.

Erfan, M., Widodo, A., Umar, U., Radiusman, R., & Ratu, T. (2020). Pengembangan Game Edukasi

“Kata Fisika” Berbasis Android untuk Anak Sekolah Dasar pada Materi Konsep Gaya. Lectura: Jurnal Pendidikan, 11(1), 31-46.

Sari, D. A., Rahayu, C., & Widyaningrum, I. (2018). Pembelajaran Matematika Menggunakan Model Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) Pada Materi Kubus Dengan Konteks Tahu di Kelas VIII. Journal of Dedicators Community, 2(2), 108-115.

Lavín-Mera, P., Torrente, J., Moreno-Ger, P., & Pinto, J. V. (2009). Mobile game development for multiple devices in education. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 4(2009).

(11)

183 Olszewski, A. E., & Wolbrink, T. A. (2017). Serious gaming in medical education: a proposed

structured framework for game development. Simulation in Healthcare, 12(4), 240-253.

Winarni, D. S., Naimah, J., & Widiyawati, Y. (2019). Pengembangan game edukasi science adventure untuk meningkatkan keterampilanpemecahan masalah siswa. Jurnal Pendidikan Sains Indonesia, 7(2), 91-100.

Widyasari, W., Sutopo, H., & Agustian, M. (2019). QR code-based learning development: Accessing math game for children learning enhancement.