UNCORRECTED PROOF 1 Chapter 12 2 Video Game Play, Mathematics, Spatial 3 Skills, and Creativity—A Study 4 of the Impact on Teacher Candidates 5 Janet Tassell, Elena Novak and Mengjiao Wu 6 Abstract This chapter explores the relationships among video gaming, spatial 7 skills and creativity in mathematics education. Specifically, it highlights the 8 importance of spatial abilities for pre-service elementary teachers, and suggests 9 video games as a teaching approach for potentially enhancing creativity, spatial 10 abilities, and mathematics performance. We argue that spatial abilities deserve more 11 attention in mathematics education, as a major predictor of achievements in science, 12 technology, engineering, and mathematical fields. To support this notion, we 13 describe an experimental study that examined the effects of playing the Angry Birds 14 and Action Video recreational video games on education majors’ math 15 problem-solving and perceptions, math anxiety, working memory, and spatial 16 skills. Individuals with high spatial abilities had significantly higher confidence in 17 learning mathematics, ACT mathematics, science, composite scores, as well as 18 geometry, word, and non-word math problem solving than individuals with low 19 spatial abilities. In addition, students with low spatial abilities had significantly 20 higher math anxiety. After 10 h of video gaming, both video game intervention 21 groups significantly improved their spatial skills, working memory, and geometry 22 performance from pre- to post-test. These findings suggest potential impact of video 23 gaming in mathematics education and open new horizons for future research that 24 explores how schools and homes working together with strategic gaming plans can 25 help students improve their spatial reasoning and problem solving. The chapter 26 concludes with future research suggestions on spatial abilities and creativity in 27 mathematics education. 28 Keywords Action video games Á Mathematics education Á Spatial skills 29 Creativity Á Preservice education 30 J. Tassell Á E. Novak (&) Á M. Wu Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA e-mail: enovak6@kent.edu M. Wu e-mail: Mwu8@kent.edu AQ1 Layout: T1_Standard Book ID: 340207_1_En Book ISBN: 978-3-319-72379-2 Chapter No.: 12 Date: 8-12-2017 Time: 7:32 pm Page: 1/20 © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 V. Freiman and J. L. Tassell (eds.), Creativity and Technology in Mathematics Education, Mathematics Education in the Digital Era 10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72381-5_12 1 Author Proof