Abstract:

Didactic games must be very well designed, as they aim to improve the knowledge and skills prescribed in the curricula, not just to pass the time and make it fun. The didactic game should be designed to motivate the students, attract them and make them enjoy the game. Didactic games require players to be active and inventive, and also strengthen cooperation, mutual help, and relationships among players. Despite the increasing research on the topic of didactic games in science recently, we found a deficit of such games in the Slovenian context for elementary school students aged 12-14 (7th-9th grade).

Therefore, we decided to develop three didactic board games on the topic of light and colour in the subject of science in the 7th grade and on the topic of light in the subject of physics in the 8th grade. The developed didactic board games carefully take into account the curricula for the above-mentioned subject and, what is really important, they also include experiments as challenges. These didactic games were evaluated in two classes of 7th grade and two classes of 8th grade. 85 students of 7th and 8th grade participated in the study. Data were collected through knowledge tests, questionnaires and observation sheets. Before and after the introduction of the didactic games in the classes, the students solved knowledge tests (pre-test). The last knowledge test (post-test) was written one week after the lessons with didactic games to determine knowledge gain. Questionnaires were used to collect opinions on individual didactic games and ideas for possible improvements. The lessons including the didactic games were also observed with pre-prepared observation sheets to gain insight into the adequacy of the didactic games. The aim of the evaluation results was also to optimise the didactic games.

The results of the research show that the method of didactic games is suitable for teaching students of age 12-14 in primary school. The developed didactic games did not fully meet the expected result in terms of achieving all proposed learning objectives, but we believe that they are still suitable for teaching about light. The evaluation has shown that the didactic games need optimization, but we have also found that students like this way of learning and consolidating the learning content, and that it is a motivating tool that increases situational interest in the subject. The results of the study will help teachers gain better insight into the design and essential elements of the didactic game that need to be considered when creating a didactic games for science or physics classes.

Keywords:

Didactic games, science, physics, experiments, light.