Student opinions on teaching the Quran with educational games in Quran courses for 4-6 years age of religious affairs, President of Religious Affairs

Education begins with birth and continues throughout human life. In order to raise a healthy individual, religious education must start with the birth of the child. The child begins to receive his primary and important education in the family. The school then becomes involved in the child's education. In our country, the institution that carries out religious education in preschool through official channels is DIB. The Presidency started working in this field in 2011, with the removal of the age limit required for entry to Quran courses. Quran courses for 4-6 year olds affiliated with the Presidency also provide pre-school religious and moral education. Instructors use various methods during the lessons given in these courses. One of these methods used is the educational game method. With educational games, the child is given the opportunity to learn by having fun while playing. Learning becomes permanent. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of educational games during Quran teaching in DIB 4-6 courses in terms of student opinions. In this study, which aims to reveal student opinions about the teaching of the Holy Quran lessons using educational games, literature review and case study methods, which are qualitative research methods, were used. 10 students studying at Elazığ Hacı Fethi Mosque 4-6 Year Old Quran Course were selected as the study group. In addition, the opinions of three 4-6 year old Quran course instructors were also consulted regarding the applications. In order to determine student opinions regarding the use of educational games in the Quran lesson, a semi-structured interview form was developed consisting of questions with varying numbers for each educational game. Within the scope of the study, the application lasted for a month and observations were made by the researcher and two people during the process. Nvivo 8 program was used to analyze the study data. As a result of the studies, it has been seen that the educational game technique is an effective method in Quran lessons, and the number of studies on this subject is quite low. It has been determined that most of the studies based on educational games for teaching the Holy Quran course are based on the opinions of the instructors and that the number of studies conducted taking into account the opinions of the students is limited. As a result of the study, it was seen that teaching the Holy Quran through educational games is loved by children, permanent learning occurs in children, and educational games offer children the opportunity to learn while having fun. Key Words: Presidency of Religious Affairs, Preschool, 4-6 years old Quran course, educational game