Enhancing fraction understanding: the role of cognitive and noncognitive factors and the potential of educational games

Given the crucial role of fraction understanding for later mathematical proficiency, it is worrying that both cognitive and noncognitive difficulties may be a stumbling block to develop fraction understanding. In terms of cognitive factors, some individuals experience difficulties with both conceptual and procedural fraction knowledge. These cognitive difficulties are often attributed to the ‘natural number bias’, which refers to individuals’ inappropriate application of natural number principles when they perform rational numbers tasks. In terms of noncognitive factors, feelings of math anxiety, a low math self-concept, or a low motivation toward math might hinder the acquisition of fraction knowledge. In particular math anxiety has been shown to be a possible barrier to understanding a complex topic such as fractions, given the negative association between math anxiety and mathematical performance. Given these often-observed cognitive and noncognitive difficulties associated with fraction understanding, it is of utmost importance to provide appropriate instruction on fractions. One promising possibility in this regard is the use of educational technology. Especially adaptive digital educational games can be used as supplemental material to support fraction instruction, and have shown to be promising in tackling cognitive and noncognitive difficulties. However, the diversity in operationalizations of adaptivity within games in previous research may underlie the lack of conclusive scientific evidence for the effectiveness of adaptive digital educational games.