Effect of Curriculum-Based Video Games on Students’ Performance: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This experimental study investigated the effect of the use of video games based on the curriculum on students' performance levels in Fourth, Fifth and Sixth grade Mathematics compared to traditional learning methods. The participants were seven hundred and eighty-nine female students from Fourth, Fifth and Sixth grades, and nineteen teachers, from different six schools in Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia. Three research null hypotheses were tested to explore students’ performance when they received two different instructional treatments: traditional learning methods (textbooks or worksheets) and a video game based on the Mathematics curriculum. The results indicate that video games based on Mathematics curriculum had a positively effect on students’ performance based on their score average in standard tests, when compared to traditional learning methods.