Pierpaolo Dondio, Mariana Rocha and Viacheslav Gusev published the first meta-analysis of the efficacy of game-based interventions on reducing students' levels of maths anxiety.

The study is based on the analysis of 22 game-based interventions on a total of 913 participants described in 15 peer-review articles. A random effects meta-analysis indicated a reduction of maths anxiety with a small effect size.

Several factors had an impact on the results: non-digital games were more effective, while digital games showed a negligible reduction. The effect of game-based interventions was also moderated by the total duration of the intervention, to the advantage of longer interventions, and by the type of gameplay: cgames had a greater effect on maths anxiety reduction when they promoted collaborative and social interactions. Such features were mainly present in non-digital games, while all bar one of the digital interventions used single-player games. The results obtained, which were particularly weak for digital games, indicated the need to develop and test games explicitly designed for maths-anxious students to increase the impact of game-based interventions.

The full article, published in Elsevier Computer & Education, can be accessed here.