In 2007 Learning and Teaching Scotland, via its Consolarium initiative put 30 Nintendo DS consoles plus 30 copies of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training into a P.5/6 class in Dundee. The children were allowed to play the game for 15/20 minutes first thing in the morning for a ten-week period. Pre and post-tests were taken and it was found that the children using the Nintendos had made dramatic improvements in their mental maths ability. Not only were they quicker at mental maths but their accuracy had greatly improved. It was also found that they had become more collegiate, more settled and particularly focused on self-improvement. HMIE noted their interest in our findings and they expressed a desire to find out if what had happened in one class would also happen in a larger scale sample. We agreed to partner them in this investigation and along the University of Dundee we extended the project to sixteen classrooms in East Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and the Western Isles. This presentation will share the findings of our extended investigation, which may ask questions about how we present contexts for numeracy development to our young learners. |