Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers' Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education

İlkim Zülal Ölmez; Özlem Özçakır Sümen

doi:10.53850/joltida.1715522

Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers' Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education

Abstract

Digital games can help children who grow up surrounded by digital technologies develop their counting skills. In this context, a digital game was designed through Minecraft Education to develop the children’s counting skills. The study's goal is to explore pre-service primary school teachers' abilities to teach numbers using the Minecraft Education game, as well as their thoughts about this teaching approach. For this reason, a Minecraft educational game that teaches numbers to young children was designed and used in the study. A case study from qualitative methodology was used, and 53 pre-service primary school teachers from an Anatolian university participated in the study. The Number Teaching Competency Form and semi-structured interview form were employed as data collection tools. The data was analyzed using a rubric and content analysis. The study's findings showed that most of the pre-service primary school teachers had a low level of skill in identifying the counting principles when using the Minecraft Education game for number teaching. Contrary to this, in the interviews, pre-service teachers stated that they could use Minecraft Education in teaching numbers and determine which stage of counting the child was in. They also thought that it was a useful tool to help them in teaching mathematics. They emphasized that this program could effectively teach arithmetic operations, problem solving, and other mathematical concepts.

Keywords

Counting principles, digital games, Minecraft education, number teaching

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English

Subjects

Artificial Intelligence (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

İlkim Zülal Ölmez ^*
0009-0000-7230-9312
Türkiye

Özlem Özçakır Sümen
0000-0002-5140-4510
Türkiye

Publication Date

January 14, 2026

Submission Date

June 6, 2025

Acceptance Date

September 22, 2025

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Year 2026 Number: 1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.53850/joltida.1715522

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA87MN89NH

APA

Ölmez, İ. Z., & Özçakır Sümen, Ö. (2026). Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age, 1, 41-55. https://doi.org/10.53850/joltida.1715522

AMA

1.Ölmez İZ, Özçakır Sümen Ö. Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education. JOLTIDA. 2026;(1):41-55. doi:10.53850/joltida.1715522

Chicago

Ölmez, İlkim Zülal, and Özlem Özçakır Sümen. 2026. “Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education”. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age, no. 1: 41-55. https://doi.org/10.53850/joltida.1715522.

EndNote

Ölmez İZ, Özçakır Sümen Ö (January 1, 2026) Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age 1 41–55.

IEEE

[1]İ. Z. Ölmez and Ö. Özçakır Sümen, “Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education”, JOLTIDA, no. 1, pp. 41–55, Jan. 2026, doi: 10.53850/joltida.1715522.

ISNAD

Ölmez, İlkim Zülal - Özçakır Sümen, Özlem. “Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education”. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age. 1 (January 1, 2026): 41-55. https://doi.org/10.53850/joltida.1715522.

JAMA

1.Ölmez İZ, Özçakır Sümen Ö. Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education. JOLTIDA. 2026;:41–55.

MLA

Ölmez, İlkim Zülal, and Özlem Özçakır Sümen. “Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education”. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age, no. 1, Jan. 2026, pp. 41-55, doi:10.53850/joltida.1715522.

Vancouver

1.İlkim Zülal Ölmez, Özlem Özçakır Sümen. Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education. JOLTIDA. 2026 Jan. 1;(1):41-55. doi:10.53850/joltida.1715522

Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age 2023. This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.

Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age. Open Access Journal, 2023. ISSN:2458-8350

Analyzing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers' Number Teaching Proficiency Through Digital Games: The Case of Minecraft Education

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