The effect of strategic computer games on critical thinking and academic achievement of students with math disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of strategic computer games on critical thinking and academic achievement of students with math disorder. The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research includes all fourth, fifth and sixth grade student s of Aran and Bidgol primary schools who had math problems in the academic year at 2021. From this community, 30 person were selected as the research sample using available sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups with 15 member. For Data collection have been used from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Ricketts critical thinking questionnaire (2003) and grade point average as the criteria for the academic progress of students in two semesters of the academic year. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 25 statistical software and by calculating descriptive and inferential statistics indices (Analysis of Covariance). The findings of the research showed that the average of the post-test in the variables of critical thinking (M=23.3) and academic achievement (M=3.20) increased compared to the pre-test and this increase is significant (P<0.05). The results of the present study showed that strategic computer games are effective on critical thinking and academic progress of students with math learning disorders by providing a suitable environment for the growth of the ability to discover, argue, problem solving and provide various methods to understand the relationships between the components of a problem. Therefore, it is suggested that use this category of games in the formal education program of students with math learning disabilities.