Case study with Teach for Bulgaria

Alexandra Ivanova and Elka Milusheva are Teach for Bulgaria teachers since 2013. During their last few months of the 2013-2014 school year, they had the opportunity to integrate Jumpido in their classes. This is what they share after experiencing Jumpido.

How did we start working with Jumpido?

AI: The team of Jumpido presented the software to us around the month of April. Initially I started with Jumpido in semi-boarding group* and I began by setting the rules for using it, to the students who are 7 to 11 years old. Together, with the kids, we discussed the rules for effective work with Jumpido and when and how we can use it and have fun with it in order to achieve better results. Of course, we defined what better results means and it is not constrained only by the math subject knowledge, but is also about the classroom culture and the skills to work as a team.

The rules:

1. When somebody is playing we support them and respect them. These rules include: to not give away the correct answers, to not insult each other and to not cross in front of the screen/Kinect.
2. Follow the instructions of the teacher.
3. Work hard in order to achieve better results and to keep using Jumpido.

EM: Solving problems while having fun with Jumpido could happen only if all students had done their homework and they followed the classroom rules. This way, for our classroom, Jumpido turned out to be a good stimulus for doing the homework quickly and following the rules.

Student’s reaction

AI: The children were fascinated with Jumpido.
When I started the software for the first time to demonstrate how to use it, the first sentence I heard was: “Miss, you are a magician”. After that, we all became magicians.
We were learning and having fun at the same time. For the children this was a little miracle, which made them more interested in technologies, mathematics and how all this is happening.

EM: Jumpido helps a lot in developing fast thinking among the students. The software improves the concentration, attention and quickness of calculations. I made a table with the results achieved by each student for each game. What I found out is that the number of correct answers increases with each game. The kids got hooked for the little time they had to play. They evaluated the graphics of the games as "very cool".

Skills and attitudes, that Jumpido helps developing:

Team work

AI: In games such as balloons and routes the students have to play in pairs, which allows the teachers the chance to follow which of the students work as a team, whether both are taking part of the exercise and how are they collaborating.

Respect

AI: When students work in pairs and form a team, they have to reach to the correct answer together. To do this, they have to communicate and synchronize their movements, which mean they have to follow the first rule we have set, namely "to respect and support each other".

Differentiation

AI: For mixed groups**, similar to those I work with, is necessary to differentiate the goals not only for each grade, but within grades as well. Jumpido made it easier for me, since I could let the pupils from different years to play the same game. This way students who progress faster can play with students older than them and compete, which is an additional motivator.

The results

AI: For the short period of time in which we used Jumpido, there is measurable result in the following areas:

1. Students are motivated to do their homework faster in order to have more time for playing and working with Jumpido.
2. They are motivated to show improvement, so we can use Jumpido next year as well.
3. Work in pairs and take responsibility for their own actions.
4. Increasing the efficiency of team work, which was one of our main goals during the school year.
5. Overcoming the difficulties of students in first grade, who cannot concentrate. After using Jumpido they keep their concentration for longer periods of time, which helped them to learn the numbers from 1 to 20, read the problems themselves and do addition and subtraction.
6. The students become more skillful, can navigate the menu of the software by themselves, to search and start a specific game and write down their score after each game.

EM: Jumpido is not only a reason for the students to have lasting desire to solve math problems, but also a way to make mathematics fun, desirable and interesting.
In my opinion, the greatest merit of working with Jumpido is the effective preparation for the national competition in mathematics. Fourteen of my pupils qualified and we won 1st and 3rd place. Preparation for mathematics competition is not an easy task, but with Jumpido, it was a game and most importantly, we achieved good results.

* Semi-boarding groups in Bulgaria are usually groups of students with low income background.
** Mixed groups are groups of students with different years of study, i.e. year 1 and year 2 students study together.