
James Russo
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at Monash University researching primary maths games and challenging tasks; founder of surfmaths.com and co-developer of ABC's GOAT Maths games.
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Sep 13, 2026
152. Why Most Classroom Math Games Aren’t Really Games (And How to Fix It)
21:14
21:34
21:40
21:48
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21:14AlishaHOST
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James RussoGUEST
don't know, the problem is you talk in such colourful ways and I spend more and more time out of the classroom reading about stuff and writing about stuff, which is great in a sense because it's a luxury, but it also makes everything a bit drier because often there's a teacher educator audience rather than just the teaching audience that you're writing for.

James RussoGUEST
I think about a perfect game needing sort of ideally having these three kind of ingredients from a mathematical perspective.

James RussoGUEST
And, you know, for the game to sort of be mathematically integrated, it does need to have a choice that's well aligned with the learning objectives that I said.

James RussoGUEST
So, and you want that to be like the strategic thinking in the game is well aligned with the mathematical learning focus.
6 MINS LATER
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27:48Ashleigh SmithHOST
So is the competition part actually helping learning or is it just helping engagement? And is the competition important in regards to running a maths game or implementing a maths game in the classroom?