Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers' Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education

Digital games can help children who grow up surrounded by digital technologies develop their counting skills. In this context, a digital game was designed through Minecraft Education to develop the children’s counting skills. The study's goal is to explore pre-service primary school teachers' abilities to teach numbers using the Minecraft Education game, as well as their thoughts about this teaching approach. For this reason, a Minecraft educational game that teaches numbers to young children was designed and used in the study. A case study from qualitative methodology was used, and 53 pre-service primary school teachers from an Anatolian university participated in the study. The Number Teaching Competency Form and semi-structured interview form were employed as data collection tools. The data was analyzed using a rubric and content analysis. The study's findings showed that most of the pre-service primary school teachers had a low level of skill in identifying the counting principles when using the Minecraft Education game for number teaching. Contrary to this, in the interviews, pre-service teachers stated that they could use Minecraft Education in teaching numbers and determine which stage of counting the child was in. They also thought that it was a useful tool to help them in teaching mathematics. They emphasized that this program could effectively teach arithmetic operations, problem solving, and other mathematical concepts.