The use of play in teaching concepts of religion and ethics lesson in primary school

For an effective education, different methods and techniques are needed in our days. Methods and techniques used should be selected by taking the student level and learning outcome into consideration. Especially, in the learning process of concepts, these techniques come into prominence. Because student can't learn the lesson of which he/she can't understand concepts, it becomes more of an issue to convey these concepts carefully. Particularly, in terms of religion education, many abstract concepts are taught along with the concrete concepts in religion and ethics lesson. Especially, in education of religion and ethics lesson, primary school students are experiencing some difficulties in learning of abstract concepts. To minimize these difficulties, it's very important to include the techniques that attract students' attention and increase their motivation so that they attend the lessons more actively. For this reason, different methods and techniques are used in religion education. One of these techniques is playing. Therefore, in our study, in education of religion and ethics lesson in primary school, teaching concepts through playing is investigated. In the first chapter of our study, research problem, the purpose and the importance of the study and research hypotheses were explained. In the second chapter in which we mentioned theoretical framework, we described the concepts of playing and dwelled on the common aspects of this concept. Thereafter, we explained the general characteristics of childhood and mentioned developmental characteristics of this period. We referred to the effect of the play in terms of the development of religion and ethics along with its physical, cognitive and affective developmental areas. Later, we explained the need of children for playing and made clear the role of playing in education and religious education. In the third chapter, we explained the research method and clarified what the population, sample and measuring instruments were in the study. Finally, the plays we performed were explained and some findings were obtained. As a result of findings, the effect of play on teaching concepts in terms of religion and ethics lesson in primary school was evaluated.