International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)

ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7 Issue-6S2, April 2019

Hi-Math Mobile App: Effectiveness in Improving

Arithmetic Skills of Primary School Students
Yussalita Md. Yussop, Subashini Annamalai, Sobihatun Nur Abdul Salam

Hi-Math is a mobile app that is designed and developed

Abstract: In this digital age, mobile technology has the poten- specifically for the Year 3 students to provide a fun way to
tial to improve the primary students' motivation who are not mo- learn arithmetic operations. Mathematical concepts such as
tivated and having the difficulties to concentrate in Mathematical
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, are illus-
classroom. A mobile app called Hi-Math was designed and devel-
oped as a game-based learning aid that is fun to learn the math- trated and animated in such way that it will attract the stu-
ematical skills especially the arithmetic for the Year 3 students. dents to learn. Hi-Math is designed and developed using
This paper reports the result of a research done to investigate the various elements of multimedia such as text, graphic, audio
effectiveness of a mobile app named Hi-Math to improve the and animation and its purpose is to motivate the students to
arithmetic skills of Year 3 students. 44 students of Year 3 from practice and improve their arithmetic operational skills. It
three schools from Kedah, experienced the Hi-Math mobile app,
will be a great way for students to brush up on their math
and answered a set of questions to measure their arithmetic oper-
ation skills before and after the intervention. The findings sug- facts and math vocabulary. This mathematical mobile app
gest that all of the respondents agreed that the Hi-Math mobile also has assessments, feedback and scores to emphasize the
app is usable and suitable in helping them to learn Mathematics students' understanding.
in an easier way. Through the intervention of the mobile app, the
students are able to answer arithmetic questions easily and it can II. RELATED WORK
motivate the students and increase their awareness of how fun
mathematics can be. This mobile app is also beneficial to the Mathematics classrooms should revolve around making
parents and the teachers to assist the students in learning the meaning (just as with non-traditional approaches to reading
arithmetic operations. and writing) and promote thinking rather than rule-
memorizing [5]. In Malaysia, Mathematics is a core subject
Keywords: Hi-Math; arithmetic; Year 3; primary; Mathemat-
ics. must be taken in primary school examination in Malaysia
named UPSR (UjianPencapaianSekolahRendah or Primary
I. INTRODUCTION Schooling Achievement Tests) [6]. Besides, the Malaysian
Examination Board also reported that more than 35% of
To learn arithmetic, it is important for the students to primary school student have failed the course [7]. This is
learn arithmetic is mastering mathematical concepts of addi- due to the low motivation level to learn Mathematics and
tion, subtraction, multiplication and division. The instanta- also that the students perceived Mathematics as a difficult to
neous recalled of the mathematical concepts has been a re- understand the subject [8].
quirement to answer the mathematical questions correctly. Teaching and learning mathematics have faced many
However, it is argued that the mathematic classes should challenges worldwide that either in delivery methods and
revolve around making meaning (just as with nontraditional student’s participations [9]. There are four main problems
approaches to reading and writing) and promote thinking with the current learning systems in Malaysia that inspires
rather than rule-memorizing [1]. The students should be us to work on this research. The problems mainly dwell
encouraged to understand the underlying concepts and be around the current learning environments which is 'chalk
able to apply them in any situation. and talk' which is too rigid that limit the students’ potential
Research done on Mathematics reported that this subject in their learning process [10]. This is sometimes made the
in school is the most difficult and dislike by the students [2]. 21st century students who are friendly with computers and
Large numbers of students have not acquired the basic skills mobile phones to be bored and uninterested. In this case, the
they need in mathematics [3] [4]. As a result, many students teacher should find new digital teaching aids to teach the
were reported to face difficulties in mathematics [2]. If students [10].
teaching and learning process is not equally effective for all The generation of students now is digital natives. They
students, the difficulties in acquiring mathematic skills by grew up with digital technologies. Teachers have to solve
the students could get worse. Understanding students’ diffi- important issues related to the adaptation of the learning
culties in mathematics skills needed in problem solving is process towards students who have different learning styles
one of the ways to assist this group of students Mathematics and new requirements for teaching and learning.
is a subject that is hard to learn for some students [2]. Gamification is one of the mobile educational approaches
and techniques that increase motivation and engagement of
learners [11]. According Zichermann& Cunningham [12],
the process of game-thinking and game mechanics engage
Revised Manuscript Received on April 15, 2019.
Yussalita Md. Yussop, University Utara Malaysia
users and solve problems.
Subashini Annamalai, University Utara Malaysia
Sobihatun Nur Abdul Salam, University Utara Malaysia

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number F10110476S219 /19©BEIESP
67 & Sciences Publication
 Hi-Math Mobile App: Effectiveness in Improving Arithmetic Skills of Primary School Students

Researchers claim that there are many advantages of us- traction, multiplication and division. The content covers the
ing games in the form of mobile application in teaching animated tutorial, and assessments. There are three assess-
mathematical. Game-based learning aids create a meaning ment levels; easy, intermediate and hard. It also gives feed-
situation for the students to learn. It motivates them to learn back to the students whether the answer given by a student
as the students are able to participate and enjoy their learn- is correct or incorrect, and the student can try again if the
ing at their own will [13]. It also provides opportunities for answer is incorrect. The app will also display the scores of
building self-concept and developing positive attitudes to- the assessments. The mobile app is designed to have all the
wards the subject, through reducing the fear of failure and important features such as animated tutorial, narration,
error [14]. This method also improves the students' learning background music, assessment, feedback and score. Not
as greater learning occurs and opportunities to test intuitive only that, it is designed and developed in the form of game-
ideas and problem solving strategies increases [15]. The based approach to improve the students' understanding and
game-based learning allows the students to operate at differ- to make the learning process enjoyable. Figure 1 illustrates
ent levels of thinking and it has the opportunity to carry out the interfaces of the Hi-Math mobile app.
diagnosis and assessment of learning in a non-threatening
situation [16]. It was stated that, gamification in Mathematic
classrooms positively affect the students' emotional state,
stimulate their interest and promote active learning [16]. Not
only have that, research claimed that the students expressed
increased motivation and engagement as well as improves
their learning [17].
A comparative analysis was conducted to Hi-Math with 3
existing Mathematical apps that cover the arithmetic opera-
tion techniques for Malaysian students. The comparison
analysis suggested that the mobile apps have animated tuto-
rial that could help the students learn arithmetic operation
techniques properly. Hi-Math is designed to have all the
important features such as animated tutorial, narration,
background music, game-mode assessment (exercise), feed-
back and score. Table 1 shows the comparison of different
functions or features of the existing mobile apps with Hi-
Math.
Table. 1 Comparison of different Mathematics mobile
app with Hi-Math
Background

Assessment
Animated
Narration

Feedback
Graphic

Timing
tutorial
Music

Score
Apps

Math
/ x x x / / x /
Game
Math
it! – Fig. 1 Hi-Math mobile app interfaces
/ x x x / / x /
Logic The Hi-Math app was developed using Adobe Flash with
Game ActionScript 3.0. The lesson content for this app was devel-
Space oped based on the Integrated Primary School Curriculum
Math / / / x / x x / (KBSR) syllabus provided by the Ministry of Education.
Hero The user interface of the app is designed using the appropri-
Hi- ate color, font and graphics that are suitable for primary stu-
/ / / / / x / /
Math dents.

III. HI-MATH MOBILE APP IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Hi-Math is a game-based mobile learning app that aims to The purpose of this research is to assist the Year 3 stu-
improve the arithmetic skills of Year 3 primary students. It dents to improve their mathematical skills. In order to do
is developed for the reason that the traditional learning of that, a mobile app called Hi-Math was designed and devel-
the arithmetic operation techniques is abstract, difficult to oped using Adobe Animate, and ActionScript3.0 as a game-
visualize and often slower compared to the animated learn- based learning aid to learn the mathematical skills especially
ing techniques in Hi-Math. Not only that it has step-to-step the arithmetic operations for
animation tutorials of the multiplication techniques, it also the Year 3 students.
provides a redundant audio explanation of the techniques. It
illustrates four arithmetic operations, namely addition, sub-

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number F10110476S219 /19©BEIESP
68 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7 Issue-6S2, April 2019

Sample V. FINDINGS
This research involves 44 students of Year 3 from three A sample of 44 students of Year 3 from three schools in
schools from Kedah who experienced the Hi-Math mobile Kedah was conveniently chosen to be the respondents for
app. They are all 9 years old and they are homogenous in this study. They are 9 years old. For the purpose of evalua-
terms of educational background. They have no knowledge tion, the respondents were given a set of pre-post Mathemat-
or experience in using the Hi-Math mobile app to learn ic test and user evaluation questionnaire. The pre-post
Mathematics. Mathematic test was to measure their arithmetic operations
Instruments skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
and the questionnaire were to evaluate their opinion of the
The respondents were assigned to Hi-Math mobile app
Mathematic learning and Hi-Math mobile app. The analyses
that is aimed to motivate the students to practice and im-
of the data were carried out through descriptive statistical
prove their arithmetic operational skills. The instruments
techniques. Table 2 illustrates the descriptive analysis of the
used for this research were a pre-test and a posttest to meas-
respondents' demographic information.
ure the respondents' arithmetic operation skills. The test
consists of 12 Mathematical questions that include addition, Table. 2 Respondents' demographic information
subtraction, multiplication and division. The question falls
Percentage
into the range of easy, intermediate and hard. The questions Information Distribution
(%)
are based on the Integrated Primary School Curriculum
(KBSR) Level 1 syllabus provided by the Ministry of Edu- Male 20 45.5
Gender
cation. The respondents were also given an opinion ques- Female 24 54.5
tionnaire after the intervention to evaluate the whether the
mobile app has contributed to the objectives. The analysis described that 24 female and 20 male stu-
dents of age 9 were chosen as respondents for this project.
Research Procedure They experienced the Hi-Math mobile app and answered
The respondents were given the pretest questions for 15 twelve arithmetic operation questions. They were given the
minutes prior to the intervention. Then, they were assigned pre-test prior to the intervention and the post-test after the
the Hi-Math mobile app individually, and they have used the intervention. The scores are obtained to measure the respon-
mobile app for one hour to experience the learning content. dents Mathematics skill of arithmetic operations. The find-
For the evaluation phase, the respondents were given fifteen ings of the descriptive analysis suggested that the mean
minutes to answer the post-test questions. The data that were value for the pre-test scores is 6.14 and the mean value of
collected were then analyzed statistically and the final report the post-test scores is 10.81 indicating that the students per-
was generated. formed better during the post-test which is after the Hi-Math
intervention.
The descriptive analysis of the test scores is depicted in
Table 3.
Table. 3 Descriptive analysis of Mathematics test scores
Pre-test Post-test
Item Correct (%) Wrong (%) Item Correct (%) Wrong (%)
Pre 1 44 (100.0) 0 (0.0) Post 1 44 (100.0) 0 (0.0)
Pre 2 41 (99.2) 3(6.8) Post 2 44 (100.0) 0 (0.0)
Pre 3 39 (88.6) 5 (11.4) Post 3 42 (95.5) 2 (4.5)
Pre 4 28 (63.6) 16 (36.4) Post 4 40 (90.9) 4 (9.1)
Pre 5 37 (84.1) 7 (15.9) Post 5 42 (95.5) 2 (4.5)
Pre 6 23 (52.3) 21 (47.7) Post 6 42 (95.5) 2 (4.5)
Pre 7 10 (22.7) 34 (77.3) Post 7 37 (84.1) 7 (15.9)
Pre 8 10 (22.7) 34 (77.3) Post 8 40 (90.9) 4 (9.1)
Pre 9 26 (59.1) 18 (40.9) Post 9 39 (88.6) 5 (11.4)
Pre 10 1 (2.3) 43 (97.7) Post 10 35 (79.5) 9 (20.5)
Pre 11 8 (18.2) 38 (81.8) Post 11 37 (84.1) 7 (15.9)
Pre 12 3 (6.8) 41 (93.2) Post 12 34 (77.3) 10 (22.7)

The descriptive analysis indicates that all the mean scores

for the post-test are relatively higher than the mean scores of
the pretest. The mean scores determined that students ob-
tained higher test scores after they have used the Hi-Math
mobile app. This means that the students were more suc-
cessful in their arithmetic operations when they learn using
Hi-Math mobile app.

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number F10110476S219 /19©BEIESP
69 & Sciences Publication
 Hi-Math Mobile App: Effectiveness in Improving Arithmetic Skills of Primary School Students

To further investigate, a paired t-Test was conducted to By using such approach, the students' comprehension and
see if there is a significant difference in the arithmetic test interest in the Mathematic subject are cultivated efficiently.
between the pre-test and the post-test scores. Table 4 indi- At the same time, it also nurture enthusiasm and motivation
cated the paired sample T-Test analysis result of these to further improve the literacy of Mathematics among the
scores to describe the significance value. young students who are just starting to learn and apply vari-
ous problem solving techniques.
Table. 4 Mathematics test pre-post test scores analysis
In addition, Hi-Math provided a multi-genre tutorial space
Paired Differences in a game-based approach that engages and draws students
Sig. (2- into a different interaction with Mathematics. It also appeals
Items Std. Devia-Std. Errortailed)
Mean to multiple intelligences as it provides embedded mixture of
tion Mean
visual (text) and audio (sound, music or voice) modalities
Pair 1: Pre1 - Post1 .000 0.00 0.00 1.00
that enables students to learn through their preferred modali-
Pair 2: Pre2 - Post2 -.068 .255 .038 .083 ty. The students were able to learn Mathematics while creat-
Pair 3: Pre3 - Post3 -.068 .398 .060 .262
ing and integrating ‘schema’ to understand better and freely
at their own will. They may repeat the content as many
Pair 4: Pre4 - Post4 -.273 .499 .075 .001 times as they want for them to understand each step of
Pair 5: Pre5 - Post5 -.114 .387 .058 .058 arithmetic operations better. The combinations of multime-
dia elements in Hi-Math that adapted the gamification ap-
Pair 6: Pre6 - Post6 -.432 .501 .076 .000 proach offered the students a welcome change from routine
Pair 7: Pre7 - Post7 -.614 .493 .074 .000 lectures in the classroom and also arouse their interest in
learning various types of modalities. In addition, it also
Pair 8: Pre8 - Post8 -.682 .471 .071 .000 helps the teacher or parents to teach the abstract concepts of
Pair 9: Pre9 - Post9 -.295 .509 .077 .000 arithmetic operations' precedence which were difficult to
Pair Pre10 - explain verbally.
-.773 .424 .064 .000 The game-based learning aid in the form of mobile appli-
10: Post10
Pair Pre11 - cation such as HiMath creates a meaning situation for the
-.659 .479 .072 .000
11: Post11 students to learn Mathematics. It motivates them to learn as
Pair Pre12 - they are able to control the content and the learning by their
-.705 .553 .083 .000
12: Post12 own and at their own will. Not only that it provides oppor-
As for the paired-sample T-Test analysis, the mean of the tunities for building self-concept and developing positive
post-test scores (Total X post = 0.901) are relatively higher attitudes towards the subject, it also reduces the fear of fail-
ure and error. This eventually will boost their motivation
than pre-test scores (Total X pre = 0.511). The p-value for
and confidence in learning the subject. This game-based
the Pair 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 is less that 0.05 indicat-
learning also allows the students to operate at different lev-
ing that there is a significance difference between the pre-
els of thinking and learning in a non-threatening situation.
test scores and the post-test scores. These higher post-test
Overall, this research also supports the claim that
mean scores indicated that the respondents are able to an-
gamification in form of mobile application for Mathematic
swer all the questions in the Mathematics test better after the
classrooms positively improve the students' learning and
Hi-Math intervention.
promote active learning.
Overall, it can be concluded that the respondents agreed
that after they have experienced the Hi-Math, their under-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
standing of arithmetic operations improved as it is a fun way
to learn Mathematic skills. They have given positive feed- The authors would like to express their gratitude to the
back that Hi-Math motivates them and the workshop has Innovation & Commercialization Centre (ICC), Universiti
been positively successful in fulfilling the intended out- Utara Malaysia for the SIGS(R) grant support provided to
comes. complete this research. The authors would also like to thank
the three primary schools and their students who voluntarily
VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION participated in the research. Any opinions, findings and con-
clusions or recommendations expressed in this research pa-
Hi-Math is a mobile app that was developed for Year 3
per are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
Mathematic learning, evidently enhances the learning pro-
views of the University.
cess of the arithmetic operators namely; addition, subtrac-
tion, multiplication and division. The content which was
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70 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7 Issue-6S2, April 2019

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