Combining collaboration and competition with prevocational game-based math education

The present study addressed the effectiveness of an educational math game for improving proportional reasoning in prevocational education, and examined the added value of face-to-face collaboration and competition. The study compared four conditions: the game with collaboration, with collaboration and competition, or with competition only, and the game without additional support. It was found that students’ proportional reasoning skill improved significantly after playing the game. Though results did not favor one condition over the other, they did indicate that the two factors (competition and collaboration) interact. This interaction is significant for students with below average prior knowledge, demonstrating a negative effect of competition on the effect of collaboration