Festarola: a Game for Improving Problem Solving Strategies

Abstract

When performing problem solving tasks, teachers need to guide students’ activities through the regulation of learning with meaningful resources that exemplify students’ daily life. As a contribution to the learning and teaching processes in problem solving in math, we created Festarola, a digital game designed for young children, ages eight to ten, where a team of players is tasked with organizing a birthday party for a group of children. The game fosters both self and shared regulation of learning in problem solving by guiding students through a forethought phase, an execution and monitoring phase, and lastly, a self-reflection phase. A user study was conducted with children from the Portuguese primary education to measure the impact of the game. Children interacted with the game individually and in groups throughout several sessions. Positive results indicate that the game successfully stimulated and developed problem solving strategies in students.