Gamification as an Educational Strategy to Strengthen Cognitive Abilities of Mathematics in School Children

This article presents a study on the usefulness of M@TILDA, a gamification tool, developed to strengthen children’s learning in the area of mathematics, which sometimes turns out to be one of the most complicated when it comes to developing the learning in the children of second and third of basic. The methodology used was based on three phases: In the first, an exploratory investigation was carried out through surveys and interviews not structured with authorities and teachers of educational centers in Tungurahua (Ecuador). In the second, the technological tool was developed, with a dynamic difficulty adaptation mechanism (DDA), which allows ergonomic and challenging behavior. Finally, in the third, a quasi-experimental study was carried out in which 25 children of school age participated. The quantitative results showed significant statistical differences in performance levels, so the teachers stated that M@THILDA is a potential tool to develop learning strategies and that it would support their teaching work in the classroom. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.