Video games should be incorporated into school lessons to boost maths and science scores, research suggests

TEENAGERS should play video games if they want to boost their maths and science scores — but they should forget about Facebook, research suggests.

Researchers are actually urging teachers to incorporate video games into their lessons.

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TEENS should play video games if they want to boost their maths and science scores — but they should forget about Facebook.

Researchers are actually urging teachers to incorporate video games into their lessons — as long as they aren’t violent — as a result of new Australian research on the school results of more than 12,000 15-year-old students.

“Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in maths and 17 points above the average in science,” researcher Associate Professor Alberto Posso said.

But children who used online social media daily got grades 20 points lower in maths than those who didn’t.

Assoc Prof Posso, who works at Melbourne’s RMIT University, compared Australian students’ test results in maths, reading and science — conducted as part of the well-regarded PISA tests — with their online use of games and social media.

He said excessive online gaming was problematic but once or twice a week was not a problem. Facebook, Twitter and online chat, however, might present “opportunity cost” in terms of study time.

Analysis of 2012 OECD test results showed students who more frequently used social media like Facebook had lower scores in reading and science.

“When you play online games, you’re solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you’ve been taught during the day,” he said.

“Teachers should consider incorporating popular video games into teaching, so long as they are not violent ones.”

Analysis of 2012 OECD test results showed students who more frequently used media had lower scores in reading and science.

Parental cyber-expert Alex Merton-McCann, who works for Intel, said some online games provided creative opportunities as well as lessons on history and culture.

“However, like everything, it is all about moderation,” she said. “Just because the games do have some benefits doesn’t mean it can be played 24/7.

Cyber security expert Alex Merton-McCann with her sons Will, and Charlie, 14 / Picture: Jonathan Ng

“In regards to the research around Facebook — that active 15-year-old social media users suffer academically — I don’t think this comes as much of a surprise. There are only so many hours in the day.”

Assoc Prof Posso said internet use among adolescents in Australia — at 97 per cent — was significantly higher than students from the United States (93 per cent) and Europe (86 per cent).

He said online gaming had becoming increasingly popular among teenagers, yet researchers had ignored its positive effects. However, he cautioned research showed children who played violent video games were more likely to become violent later in life.

Originally published as Video games should be incorporated into school lessons to boost maths and science scores, research suggests