Didactic game is a dynamic method of work, as students are very active during the game, they are using a variety of concrete materials and they are learning through experiences. The game allows them to have fun, trying different things, and besides, they are not even aware that they are learning through games.
In the curriculum for Slovene (2018), the didactic game is mentioned mainly in the first three years, but later almost no more. Because didactic game supposed to have positive effects on students' motivation and activity and the sustainability of knowledge, we tried to determine whether this also applies to 4th grade students with a research that is an intertwining of qualitative and quantitative research. Two 4th grade departments were included in the study, one was the experimental group and the other was the control group. In the experimental group, three didactic games were performed in the language teaching of Slovene, namely in the discussion of sentence formation, the use of uppercase and lowercase letters and semantic relations between words. The didactic games we have designed and tested are suitable for refreshing and repeating subject matter and for various forms of learning, such as individual work, pair work and group work.
The empirical part presents the results obtained by analyzing student tests and surveys for students and teachers. Before and after the didactic game, the students were given a test to determine the impact of the didactic game on their knowledge sustainability. With questionnaires and an observation sheet, we found that they are very active during the didactic game, they cooperate with each other, have fun, finding this way of learning very attractive and are accepting knowledge with greater enthusiasm. We found a difference that in students who learned through didactic games, the permanence of knowledge is slightly longer than in students who were taught frontally. We noticed that in group of students who learned with didactic games, in contrast to students who learned frontally, the durability of knowledge is slightly longer, so the students of the experimental group found the learning content taught with the help of didactic games easier to aware and recall as control group students. Students stated that they liked the didactic games very much. Everyone thought they were just playing, but they also liked that they were active all the time.
The surveyed 4th grade teachers also state similar findings about the use of didactic games.. Most interviewees want to use didactic games more often because they believe that students will learn more through the game, lessons will be more varied and fun, students will be more motivated to learn, more relaxed and active. They use didactic games once or twice a month and many of them would like to perform more didactic games in Slovene. They most often use games in developing language, stylistic, spelling and orthographic skills and in the introductory part of the lesson. They give priority to didactic games for couples and most often use them to repeat the subject matter. Ideas for didactic games are obtained mainly in the literature, and less than half of interviewees invent them themselves or find ideas online.
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