DEVELOPMENT OF THE USE OF DIDACTIC COMPUTER GAMES AMONG STUDENTS IN GRADE 3 IN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The present paper describes the results of a comparative research on the development of the use of didactic (also referred to as teaching) computer games among students in grade 3 of grammar schools in the Czech Republic between 2016 and 2018. The research study was repeatedly performed in ten identical grammar schools in Olomouc region, Pardubice region, Moravian-Silesian region and Zlín region. The research was of a quantitative design. The research method was a questionnaire of the authors’ design with mixed typology of questionnaire items. The questionnaire survey was conducted in two stages. Stage 1 of the research was conducted between April and May 2016 and included 525 respondents (322 women and 202 men) from 10 randomly selected schools. Stage 2 of the research was carried out between April and June 2018 in identical grammar schools. The total number of respondents during this stage of the research was 529 (312 women and 216 men). During both stages, the questionnaire was distributed to the students in a printed version in cooperation with their schools. The research data in an electronic format were processed and analysed using a spreadsheet application and specialized statistical software STATISTICA 12. For the purposes of data comparison the chi-squared test of independence was used.

An analysis of the data obtained suggests that the degree of playing didactic computer games among Czech grammar school students increased between 2016 and 2018. In 2018, of the total number of 529 grammar school students, didactic computer games were played by 29.30% (n=155) of students. In 2016, of the total number of 525 grammar school students, didactic computer games were played by 24% (n=126) of students. Playing didactic games is statistically significantly dependent on students’ gender (in 2018 these games were played by 34.29% of women and by only 21.76% of men). In 2016 games were played by 27.64% of women and 18.23% of men. An interesting finding is that in the lower stage of education (elementary schools), didactic computer games (as suggested by students) were played by 42.72% of students. There is also a certain discrepancy between how many grammar school students would like to play computer games – approximately 52% of students (53.24% men and 48.08% women) and how many actually play games. There is also a disproportion between the levels of playing games between students from various schools. In 2016 the variance of playing didactic computer games ranged from 15.38% (school 10) to 34.44% (school 5). In 2018 the variance was from 24% (school 2) to 41.67% (school 4). A subsequent analysis suggested that in 2018 students from all grammar schools preferred playing the following didactic computer games: Duolingo, Triviador, Words Puzzle Game, Brain Teaser, Kahoot, Quizlet. The most frequent reasons for not playing these games included the following: I’m not interested, I don’t know the game, It’s boring.