ROLE OF MATH GAME APPS ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS MATHEMATICS AMONG PRIMARY STUDENTS IN KOGI STATE

commencement, student's attitude towards mathematics was established (pre-test) using an attitude towards mathematics questionnaire. In the post-test study, the treatment group student (group A) was exposed to a math game app (Prodigy Math). The result showed that the gaming app significantly the experimental group's towards mathematics (M = 43.81, SD = 9.54) compared to the control group (M = 32.15, SD = 5.27). An independent t-test conducted to determine the group differences in attitude towards mathematics established that math gaming apps influenced the participants' attitude towards mathematics at MD = 11.66 (95% CI, 7.92 to 15.16), t (81) = 6.317, p = .001. The study recommends that the use of gaming app should be embedded in the school curriculum.

Mathematics is an essential part of the Nigerian education vision. Mathematics is widely perceived as a tedious and challenging subject to learn. Thus, math avoidance behavior is a trend that cuts across culture and is pervasive among young learners. Research has pointed the relevance of computer games in learning mathematics. Therefore, the current study is aimed to examine the role of math game apps on the attitude of primary school students in Kogi State of Nigeria towards mathematics. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-tests and two groups (experimental and control) were adopted. Primary school students in Kogi State made up the population of the study. Eighty-three (n = 83) students comprising males and females within the age range of 7 -11 years and mean age of (M=9.12) and (SD= 1.22) were randomly pooled from selected public primary schools in Kogi State as the study participants. The students were assigned to groups, with group A as the experimental group, while group B represents the control group. Before the main study's commencement, student's attitude towards mathematics was established (pre-test) using an attitude towards mathematics questionnaire. In the post-test study, the treatment group student (group A) was exposed to a math game app (Prodigy Math). The result showed that the gaming app significantly influenced the experimental group's attitude towards mathematics (M = 43.81, SD = 9.54) compared to the control group (M = 32.15, SD = 5.27). An independent t-test conducted to determine the group differences in attitude towards mathematics established that math gaming apps influenced the participants' attitude towards mathematics at MD = 11.66 (95% CI, 7.92 to 15.16), t (81) = 6.317, p = .001. The study recommends that the use of gaming app should be embedded in the school curriculum. . The probable explanation for this perception may be attributed to thethinking and reasoning required in mathematics. Nevertheless, learning mathematics involves thinking and reasoning and depends on the learners' attitudes towards learning and mathematics (Anthony &Walshaw, 2007). However, the subject's state in Nigeria's primary education is not encouraging (Adedeji, 2018), and the instructors are saddled with a vital task (Newman, 2020). Achieving mathematical competence entails inculcating its relevance to beginners (Murni &Ruqoyyah, 2020). Previous studies have emphasized mathematics's relevance to society (Akinoso Attitude is a socio-psychological construct referring to an individual's like or dislike of any aspect of their world. Attitude is an important determinant of human response and can affect motivation and learning outcome. Students' success in mathematics depends upon their attitude towards mathematics.Kazmagambet et al. (2020) concluded that students' attitudes toward mathematics improved using an active learning strategy.Bakar and Ayub (2020)reported an association between attitude and mathematical problem-solving achievement. Therefore, this study intends to examine the role of gaming app on student's attitudes towards math.

The present study
Math avoidance behavior is a trend that cuts across culture and is pervasive among young learners. Mathematics is widely perceived as complex(Okafor &Anaduaka, 2013)and a tedious subject to learn, especially for children. This assertion may be linked to the perceived unfavorable attitudes related to the subject. However,children enjoy playing games (Berger et al., 2000). Thus, to enhance the youngsters' morale and inculcate a positive attitude in relation to mathematics, we intend to determine if gamification would increase primary school student's likability for math. Although game apps have been widely used, the trend is novel in the Kogi State of Nigeria. Therefore, this study's primary purpose is to explore math game apps as a moderating variable that positively influences primary school students' attitudes towards mathematics.

Hypothesis
This study hypothesized that game app would significantly influence primary school students' attitudes towards mathematics.

Method:-
A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-tests and two groups (experimental and control) were adopted in this present study. Primary school students in Kogi State made up the population of the study. Eighty-three (n = 83) students comprising males and females within the age range of 7 -11 years and mean age of (M=9.12) and (SD= 1.22) were randomly pooled from selected public primary schools in Kogi State as the study participants. The students chosen primarily from primary 5 and 6 classes were assigned to groups, with group A as the experimental group. In contrast, group B represents the control group. Before the main study's commencement, students'attitude towards mathematics was established (pre-test) using an attitude towards mathematics questionnaire. In the post-test study, the treatment group student (group A) wasexposed to a math game app (Prodigy Math). Prodigy is a free-to-580 use and adaptive game app that integrates basic math concepts into a fantasy-style game. Prodigy is widely used in the US and has been implemented as part math curriculum (NCT, 2018). Students in the control groupwere exposed toother mathematical activity excluding the game app in the post-test study. After that, the student's attitude towards mathematics was further assessed.   (32.15). The standard deviation scores also revealed an increased score of9.54 for the study group and a lower score of 5.27 for the control group. Thus, it indicates that the mean scores increased significantly following the exposure to the Prodigy Math game for group A. .317 001 An independent-samples t-test was conducted to determine if there were differences between the experimental and the control groups'attitudes towards mathematics in the post-test study. The result of the analysis established an increased positive attitude towards mathematics for the experimental group (43.81 ± 9.54) when compared to the control group (32.15 ± 5.27), a statistically significant difference of 11.67 (95% CI, 7.92 to 15.16), t (81) = 6.317, p = .001.

Discussion:-
This study was conducted to determine whether the use of a game apps would moderate primary school students' attitudes towards mathematics. Following a pre-test, post-test study, the mean and standard deviation score showed that the gaming app significantly influenced the experimental group's attitude towards mathematics in the post-test study (M = 43.81, SD = 9.54) compared to the control group (M = 32.15, SD = 5.27). The result of an independent ttest conducted to determine the differences in both groups relating to attitude towards mathematics established that math gaming apps influenced the participants' attitude towards mathematics at MD = 11.66 (95% CI, 7.92 to 15.16), t (81) = 6.317, p = .001. Thus, the result affirmed the study's expectation that gamification would influence primary school students' attitudes towards mathematics. reported that students in the game intervention group showed higher mathematics proficiency than those in the paper-and-pencil group. The probable explanation for this finding could be attributed to the increasing innovation in mobile technologies that have reached every corner of society and have attracted the attention of children who enjoy playing games with smartphones. The conventional classroom teaching strategy has been in use for a long and could seem monotonous to young learners. An increase in basic math skills can only be accomplished by motivating the students using technological innovations such as games (Batzogiannis et al., 2018). Games could present an opportunity for the student to compete in the mathematics setting.

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Furthermore, the result provides evidence that the utilization of math gaming apps in teaching mathematics will effectively shape students' attitudes positively. Indeed, attitudes are acquired through various means, and when formed, can influence behavior. In other words, Games will enhance the youngsters' mathematical capabilities and change their overall attitude towards the subject. (Schenke et al., 2020)the results suggest that apps can be designed to help children learn essential mathematics skills

Conclusion:-
In response to the study hypothesis, the result revealed, in line with (Chang et al., 2015),that gaming app predicted the variance in student's mathematical performance. Thus, it was concluded that a math game app is an indispensable tool in mathematics in primary school. The study contributes to the mathematics literature by supporting the use of games in enhancing student's performance in mathematics in Nigeria. Nevertheless, the present research encountered a particular limitation that needs to be pointed out. First, the sample size was small and may not be reliable for generalization. Also, the design of the study did not allow for cause-effect determination. Future researchers are advised to include more representative samples and adopt pure experimentation to ascertain causeeffect relationships. However, we recommend that teachers be regularly trained on the use of gaming applications in the classroom. The use of gaming app should be embedded in the school curriculum.

Ethical consideration
The researchers ensured that the study procedures involving human participants were done following the institution's ethical standard.

This study was sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund Nigeria)
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