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In traditional mathematics education, students have typically been asked to solve lots of tedious and uninteresting exercises for developing the arithmetic skills of addition and subtraction. The paper provides an account of learning arithmetic skills in a more interesting way through the collaborative playing of a puzzle game. 83 students in three classes in Grade 4 were asked to solve arithmetic problems with three different methods: via playing an adapted "cross number puzzle" game on Group Scribbles (GS) collaboratively, via playing the same game on GS individually, and via the traditional method of teaching and learning, i.e. with no games at all. Analysis of the pre and post learning achievement data reveals that the two classes who played the game performed better than the control class, with the collaborative class students achieving better than the individual class students. By playing the game, low-ability students, in particular, made the most significant progress in arithmetic capability and in building up their confidence in doing arithmetic calculations. (Contains 14 tables and 11 figures.)

This study aimed to develop a collaborative and manipulative virtual Tangram puzzle to facilitate children to learn geometry in the computer-supported collaborative learning environment with Tablet PCs. In promoting peer interactions and stimulating students' higher-order thinking and creativity toward geometric problem-solving, we designed a collaborative Chinese Tangram activity with problem-solving learning strategies. Participants are 25 6th graders of a suburb elementary school of Tai-Chung City. The results suggest that children's competency in rotation and space of shapes had been improved and the scores gap between lower and higher achievers had been narrowed. Such a collaborative Chinese Tangram activity may facilitate peer negotiation, enhance children's belief toward problem solving, and benefit each child to share resources, and a positive interdependent learning context can naturally be developed. (Contains 6 tables and 12 figures.)

While addition and subtraction is a key mathematical skill for young children, a typical activity for them in classrooms involves doing repetitive arithmetic calculation exercises. In this study, we explore a collaborative way for students to learn these skills in a technology-enabled way with wireless computers. Two classes, comprising a total of 52 students in Grade 4 (ages 10 or 11) participated in the study. They used the Group Scribbles software to run an adapted version of the "Cross Number Puzzle" that was designed with the "feedback" mechanism to assist students' problem solving. In one class, students played the game individually and in the other class, students played the game collaboratively. The low-ability students in the collaborative class were found to have made the most significant progress in arithmetic skills through playing this game. Three dominant interactive collaboration patterns, one contributing to productive interactions and two to less productive interactions, were also identified in the students' collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]