Study finds smarter students play online games
Video games pass high school test, but social media is a drag
Students who spend time playing online video
games are more likely to gain higher grades in core subjects, according to a
new report.
The study — Internet Usage and Educational Outcomes Among
15-Year-Old Australian Students — tracked exam results and the
personal habits of 12,000 high school attendees. All had taken an
internationally recognized paper called Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA) which tests for proficiency
in mathematics, science and literacy.
The students also filled out forms
highlighting their socio-economic backgrounds as well as their personal
lifestyle choices. Use of "online games," both single and
multiplayer, was one area of the questionnaire, though individual games were
not named.
The results showed that students who play
online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in math and
reading and 17 points above the average in science.
Economist Alberto Posso, an associate
professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, created the study. He
said that his findings did not prove that gaming makes people smarter, only
that there is a correlation between bright students and online games.
His study also compared exam results with
usage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. He found that students
who spend a lot of time on social networks tend to underperform (four
percentage points below the average) with the academic cost increasing
according to time spent socializing online.
"Online games foster a range of skills
that promote higher order thinking, which could potentially lead to
improvements in math and literacy," stated Posso, though he added that
"it could be argued that people who are good at math and reading also
enjoy games that allow them to employ, or even sharpen these skills."
Publishing his findings in The International Journal of Communication,
he commented, "It's possible that children who are already gifted in the
areas of math, science, and reading are also more likely to play online games
and children with lower academic abilities spend more time socializing.
Gameplay appears to equip students to apply and sharpen knowledge learned in
school by requiring them to solve a series of puzzles before moving to the next
game level."
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