Board games and feedback: a model for assessing mathematical skills

Abstract

This paper investigates the educational and evaluative potential of board games in teaching/learning mathematics in primary school, adopting the perspective of assessment as learning. It analyses the role of feedback within structured play environments as tools for observing and promoting cognitive, metacognitive and self-regulatory skills. Play, as an authentic and motivating context, allows us to move beyond an assessment approach focused exclusively on performance and product, favoring instead reflective dynamics and self-assessment processes on the part of students. Through the Numeri e Pedine (Numbers and Pawns) research project, conducted with nursery and primary school teachers, educational pathways focused on the use of play as a formative assessment tool were designed, tested and analyzed. The qualitative data collected highlights the variety and stratification of feedback that can be generated in a playful context (task, process, self-regulation), as well as the potential of play to normalize mistakes and support their constructive reworking. However, the analysis highlights some recurring critical issues, such as an excessive focus on oral and outcome-centered feedback and the lack of systematization of self-regulatory practices. There is therefore a need for intentional feedback design and a growth-oriented assessment culture. In this perspective, board games are privileged pedagogical environments for developing mathematical and metacognitive skills in an integrated, authentic and inclusive way.