In February and May 1973, experimental forms of the mathematics game EQUATIONS were used in two seventh-grade classes which had been participating twice a week in EQUATIONS tournaments since the previous September. The purpose of the experimental games was to gain information as to the kinds of mathematical ideas players choose to concern…

This paper directs attention to the use of the EQUATIONS game as a research tool to study certain kinds of mathematical behavior, for example, the kinds of mathematical problems which players prefer to consider and to force their opponents to consider. Mathematical equations that meet certain game rule constraints constitute a problem space. A…

A survey was conducted with 104 seventh-grade students in four classrooms participating in EQUATIONS tournaments. The tournaments had been taking place on a weekly-basis for several weeks. The study compares four basic pedagogical assumptions behind the tournament structure with student opinion of the tournaments. Student responses to the survey…

This study focuses on the affective dimension of learning as influenced by a learning environment organized around instructional gaming. Experimental and control classes of seventh- and eighth-grade students taught by the same teachers for both semesters participated in the 1972-73 study. The experimental learning environment contained three…