Emotional Multimedia Design for Developing Mathematical Problem-Solving Skills

Abstract

This experimental study aims to investigate the effects of incorporating an emotional design into multimedia materials on problem solving skills, attention and motivation levels in primary mathematics. We divided 60 primary school students into control and experimental groups. In the experimental group, the face-like shape and “happy” color were used in the emotional design. We used pre- and post- tests to measure score gains, a post-questionnaire measure attention and motivation levels. The results of this study showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on problem solving skill. The results also showed that students learning with the emotional design had higher attention and motivation levels. Further discussion suggests that, if positive emotional designs were applied, students felt happier and more hopeful during multimedia learning. We suggest teachers should use face-like shape approach to teach geometry to make the content knowledge more interesting and positive. We also suggest, teacher could present happy images in the beginning of mathematics classroom for attracting student attention.