Serious Mathematics Games Bolster Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy in Women Learners

The possible benefits of digital mathematics games for adult women's self-beliefs were the focus of this study. Female adult learners face many challenges in education, and successful completion of mathematics courses continues to be one of these challenges. While there are many reasons for these challenges, two critical challenges are learners' mathematics self-concept and mathematics self-efficacy. The specific problem was the unknown effectiveness of digital games to improve women learners' self-concept and self-efficacy. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study, using a pretest -- posttest design, with a treatment group and a control group, was to determine if playing digital mathematics games for 30 minutes in a single sitting would improve female adult learners' self-concept and self-efficacy more than those who played non-mathematics digital games. A selective stratified sample was used. The participants were 68 women volunteer undergraduate students, enrolled in a general education composition course at an accredited university teaching courses online where the researcher teaches. The Math Confidence Scale was used to measure the mathematical self-concept for both the pretest and posttest. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the null hypotheses for between group differences. With the test statistic UT = 505 and critical value U = 410.0838, there was no statistically significant difference between the treatment and control groups. The Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale was used to measure the mathematical self-efficacy for both the pretest and posttest. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the null hypotheses for between group differences. With the test statistic UT = 555 and critical value U = 404.2139, there was no statistically significant difference between the treatment and control groups. However, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test tested changes from the pretest to the posttest for the treatment group, which did show a statistically significant difference for both self-beliefs. The mathematical self-confident test statistic was 138 and critical value = 200. The mathematical self-efficacy test statistic was 210 and critical value = 213. Playing mathematical digital games improved the participants' mathematical self-beliefs, however, there was no conclusive evidence that this increase was from playing mathematical games or games in general. Additional research in a more controlled environment and games matching participants' specific mathematical understanding would improve understanding of this topic.