O ensino e aprendizagem de Geometria por meio de missões contextualizadas em jogos digitais de RPG

Abstract

Data collected about the level of teaching and learning of Mathematics reveal a substantial deficit in Basic Education students. This demonstrates that the method traditionally used by teachers in the area is not proving to be effective for students of the current generation, since Mathematics is presented in an abstract and decontextualized way, making understanding difficult and making the subject complicated and boring. Given this scenario, it is imperative to seek alternatives for the Mathematics teaching and learning process. With this in mind, we live in a society in which students are immersed in digital technologies, increasingly using smartphones and computers actively. That said, learning based on digital games presents itself as an active methodology that allows the integration of Mathematics concepts into games, making Mathematics classes more interesting and related to students' daily lives. Furthermore, Geometry concepts can be integrated in a playful and visually attractive way in the context of digital games, transforming what is abstract into something concrete and meaningful. Therefore, this research aims to develop strategies for using digital games in an engaging and thought-provoking way as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning geometry in the classroom. Given this, the central question of this research arises: how can a digital game that explores geometry concepts become immersive and thought-provoking, in order to effectively contribute to the assimilation of explored content? With the aim of seeking more information on the subject, a systematic review was carried out on the use of digital games in the classroom, for which it was found that many digital educational games have been planned with a focus “only” on the transmission of content, neglecting important aspects of design and psychology that are responsible for providing enjoyable experiences for players. Seeking to answer this research question, Minecraft was chosen, which is one of the most popular game environments today, as a platform for creating quests focused on geometry in an RPG game aiming to attract students' attention. To achieve this, the quests were designed through visual representations, transforming concepts previously considered abstract into meaningful situations for students. The quests developed were applied in the context of a 9th year class of Elementary School II at a public school in Natal/RN, as well as in an extension course offered to undergraduate students and Basic Education teachers. The teachers and students who participated in the application evaluated the developed solution based on a set of criteria related to engagement and learning. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed solution appears to be a very promising alternative for teaching and learning geometry.