The effect of teaching sixth grade integrated numbers with educational games on students' academic success, misconception and belief

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of teaching sixth grade integers with educational game activities on mathematics achievement, belief in mathematics, eliminating misconceptions and student opinions. The study group consists of 53 students, 29 in the experimental group and 24 in the control group, from two different secondary schools in Niğde. In the study, exploratory sequential design, one of the mixed research models in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together, was used. 29 students from the school where the researcher worked were determined as the experimental group, and 24 students from a different secondary school were determined as the control group. Before starting the research, the Integer Achievement Test (TSBT) and the Beliefs in Mathematics Scale (MBS) were applied to both groups, the equivalence of the groups was checked with the independent sample t-test, and after they were found to be equivalent, the groups were determined as the study group. Afterwards, teaching the subject of integers was done with educational game activities in the experimental group, while this method was not used in the control group. At the end of the subject, TSBT and MYİÖ were applied again to both groups. In addition, student letters were written to the experimental group students immediately after the lessons, and student interviews were held with the students after the application was completed. SPSS 27 program was used to analyze quantitative data. In order to investigate its effect on eliminating misconceptions, the options that students made mistakes in TSBT were examined and the results of this examination were supported by the solutions made by the students. The data obtained from student interviews and student letters were subjected to content analysis and represented the qualitative part of the research. According to the results of the research, teaching sixth grade integers with educational games had a positive effect on academic success and eliminating misconceptions in favor of the experimental group. However, although there was a greater increase in belief in mathematics in favor of the experimental group, there was no increase at a level that would create a significant difference between the two groups. It has been concluded that teaching mathematics through educational game activities has no effect on belief in mathematics. According to the interviews conducted with the experimental group students and student letters, educational game activities had a positive impact on student opinions. Keywords: Integers, Educational Games, Misconceptions, Elimination of Misconceptions, Beliefs Towards Mathematics