School subjects Environmental studies and Science and technology have to be structured in a way that students can be as active as possible during classes and consequently learn about the world they live in. Teachers play a very important role in lesson planning because they have to prepare creative and interesting tasks for students. In addition, teachers have to identify which teaching methods are the most appropriate in a certain situation. One of the frequently used methods in lessons of Environmental studies is a didactic game. The didactic game consists of a certain task and a goal, which enables students to grow and develop mentally. When playing didactic games, students express their creativity and independence as well as explore new topics. Didactic games challenge students to compete with themselves or with others. Teachers have the responsibility of preparing or choosing quality didactic games so that students want to play them.
On the basis of the research and as part of this MA thesis, different didactic games have been prepared for learning contents of day and night, weather, water and compounds for lessons of Environmental studies in 2nd grade of elementary school. The aim was to explore the students’ knowledge about aforementioned topics before playing the didactic games and to re-examine their understanding after playing. It was also important to determine the students’ opinion about the didactic games they played and the teacher’s opinion about whether the designed didactic games are appropriate for teaching Environmental studies in 2nd grade of elementary school.
There were 27 second-grade students from a chosen countryside school that participated in the research. Three data collection instruments were used in the research: the so-called pre- and post-test, questionnaire for students and observation sheet for the teacher. Before playing didactic games in class, the students took a pre-test for the purpose of collecting information about the students’ prior knowledge on the topics of weather, day and night, compounds and water. Four didactic games were designed for the students to play, each representing one learning content. After every game, the students took a post-test that was the same as the pre-test, and filled in the questionnaires. The teacher filled in the observation sheets. The students evaluated statements about learning contents of day and night, weather, water and compounds on a three-level scale. Similarly, the teacher marked on a three-level scale the students’ reactions when playing didactic games and added some comments.
Two research questions in this thesis were set: 1) how students improved their knowledge after playing didactic games for learning contents of weather, compounds, day and night, and water; and 2) what is the students’ and the teacher’s opinion about didactic games for learning contents of day and night, weather, water and compounds,.
The research findings show that didactic games for learning contents of weather, compounds, day and night, and water helped achieve a better understanding of different concepts and expanded the students’ knowledge. When playing didactic games and taking the tests, the students were active and motivated, which is reflected in their final test results. The students were better at taking the post-test than the pre-test. As the sample is too small, the findings cannot be generalized, but it is possible to draw some conclusions that can encourage the planning of further research with the aim to discover whether playing didactic games helps students broaden their knowledge on different taxonomy levels and to what extent it develops science and social-emotional competencies.
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