The impact of commercial board games on secondary school mathematics performance and thinking skills

• Commercially available, non-digital board games can be implemented into regular mathematics classroom work. • Dedicating one lesson per week out of four a week to playing board games does not hinder the mastery of the curricular material. • Implementation of carefully selected board games can enhance performance on geometry tasks. Board games have been examined in the context of mathematics education from various perspectives. Neuroscience considerations imply that board games can serve as a tool for improving the mathematical thinking of students in a sensitive period of brain development between the ages of 12 and 24. This suggests that secondary school can be an optimal environment for implementing board games to foster mathematical skills. In this study, we investigate the potential benefits of the implementation of board games in the regular, obligatory mathematics classroom work. The participants were 10 th -grade students ( N = 170) from four schools. The experimental group ( N = 79) spent one of their four weekly mathematics lessons playing with commercial board games, having 9 board game sessions altogether during the intervention. Meanwhile, the control group ( N = 91) continued with traditional mathematics lessons. Both groups completed pre- and post-tests on logical and geometrical skills, as well as uniform topic tests on the material covered during the experiment. Our results show that the experimental group performed at least as well on the logical tests as the control group did, while outperforming them on the topic tests. In terms of geometrical skills, students in the experimental group demonstrated significant improvement in 3 of the 4 schools, while members of the control group did not show improvement. The rate of improvement varied among schools. Based on these findings, incorporating appropriate board games into mathematics lessons can enhance students' mathematical skills. However, further research is needed to explore this topic more deeply.