Gamification design for teaching numeracy to slow learners

Abstract

Slow learners in school are students who have difficulty in learning due of their limited cognitive abilities. Most of these students have difficulty in literacy and numeracy. There is an existing debate on how to motivate them to learn and become literate. This paper discusses the use of gamification approach in the development of an application for delivering numeracy content to slow learners in primary schools to motivate them to learn numeracy and improve their numeracy understanding in a fun and enjoyable manner. The NUMERATica application is designed using digital game-based learning instructional design (DGBL-ID) method. The development starts with requirements gathering from users and stakeholders, followed by interface and content design, development, and evaluation of the prototype. The application consists of three modules; learning, play and exercise module. Gamification is applied in each module to increase user motivation and engagement. This application can help motivate learning and promote understanding of numeracy for slow learners and gamification approach may help students with special needs and thus can help decrease the number of students in remedial classes.