Child Motivation

Jára Bížová

How to motivate students to play Abaku? Let me describe how I did it. At first, mostly intuitively. And I must say, with quite a lot of success. However, every child responds to something different, every class collective is unique, and each of us as teachers or parents is different.

At the beginning, it is good to introduce students to elements of Abaku through five-minute warm-ups at the start of lessons (or if there is time left at the end of the lesson). The children don’t even need to know that it is the Abaku game.

• They slowly get used to forming equations without operators from the given numbers (written on the board, cards, dice).
• Once they are familiar with forming equations, it is good to offer a new activity - finding equations (Abaku sequences, birth dates, license plates on cars, etc.).
• For faster or more gifted children, it is appropriate to offer a more complex variant or let them create tasks for their classmates.
• Depending on the age and level of the students, start with equations involving only addition and subtraction, then move on to multiplication, or even square and cube roots.
• The same applies to working with single-digit, double-digit, or triple-digit numbers.
• It takes quite a while for children to learn how to use zero correctly, so patience and a lot of help with creating equations are needed.
• Children are usually very active during these activities and are very happy when they find an equation. Celebrate with them! It is good to allow them to write the found equation on the board and praise them a lot. The advantage of these activities is the possibility of success for both weaker and gifted students (this should be considered when creating Abaku sequences).

After some time, it is possible to end the activity by finding equations for the highest possible points, which teaches students to calculate points and realize that there are less and more advantageous equations in terms of point gain. What is also good for children is working in pairs or groups. Especially at the beginning, this helps to remove uncertainty and failure and develops much-needed cooperation.

Now it is good to start talking a bit more about Abaku. I really liked the story about the origin of Abaku, and since children love stories, I retold it to them.

And it was time to show them the board game. At first, four pairs played one board game against each other. They played without counting the score, just for fun. However, not all children enjoy the board game for long; some need "more action." It is necessary to respond to this and change the activity at the right time.

A variant can be a so-called pre-played game printed on paper, including drawn tiles, where students find where they could place the tiles (numbers) - various options. Or it is possible to search for already played equations.

The most popular and attractive variant for my students has always been the online game (or the app), where they can play directly against their friends, and the computer calculates the points for them. Here, it is necessary to ensure that players of approximately the same skill level play against each other; otherwise, both will be strongly demotivated and will not develop. At first, I also regularly walked around the class and helped each student with an equation if they didn’t know what to do. Gradually, their main problem was "removing" zeros. If someone was very skilled, they could walk around the class with me if they wanted to. Or they could compare themselves with robots 1, 2, 3 (increasing difficulty) to verify their improvement.

However, playing against robots doesn’t excite students much. At first, they are not able to beat even robot 1, so they feel frustrated. And that’s not good. Therefore, don’t rush into playing against robots, or during the first games against robots, help children find equations and game strategies (occupying pairs, triples, using more advantageous equations).

But when students have been playing Abaku for some time (and it also depends on their age) and are more confident, winning against a robot can be a strong motivational element. And what about when they start playing the Abaku league and can compare themselves with students from all over the country? Then they often ask their friends: "What rank are you?" They even made me regularly update a printed list of Abaku players up to the 100th place on the bulletin board, where I underlined students from our school so they could find themselves more easily and their classmates could see it too.

From my experience, everyone improves in Abaku. Everyone at their own pace and within their abilities, but really everyone. That’s why Abaku is an excellent activity for entire school classes. As children’s arithmetic skills improve, so do their school results, not only in mathematics!

Another connection I noticed, especially in the first two years - as the teacher (club leader, parent) improves, so do their students. However, improvement also has its "limit." When students have no room to progress and are really very good, the game no longer excites them, and the only motivation remains to beat another school in the Abaku league and be first :o) And the national finals, where only the top 50 qualify, is a strong emotional experience for all participants, as my students know! If more of them qualify, they have a shared experience, making the experience even stronger.

And I must not forget the most important element of motivating students, and that is the teacher themselves, their personality, their enthusiasm for the subject, and their love for children. Those who burn with passion ignite others.