The effect of museum activities based on games to the student achievement and their attitude towards art classes

The main aim of the study about the effect of museum activities based on games to the student achievement and their attitude towards art classes is to determine the effects of educational games in order to make the museums more efficient learning environments. With this intention, the importance and necessity of the museums, which are the most important learning environments, and their place in learning are analyzed in addition to the technique of educational games to make museum teachings more effective in art classes at schools.In this study, to define whether the usage of games in the classes affects students? attitude and success is among the purposes. It is intended to create an effective learning environment in the Art classes with the activities based on games. The aim of the research is to state the results that would be gained after benefiting from the museums with this educational games method, which is different from the activities included in the curriculum of the 6th grades for Art classes at schools, and the suggestions that would be developed accordingly.The research has been conducted on the 6th grade students at Namık Kemal Primary School in the fall semester of 2011-2012 Educational Year. Two classes were chosen randomly. Experimental group of the sample groups is 6th Grade-A (n=29) and control group is 6th Grade-B (n=28). As Pretest-Posttest Control Group Experimental Design was used in the research. The data in the research was gained with achievement test (pretest-posttest and follow up test) and attitude test (pretest-posttest and follow up test). The achievement test and the attitude scale used in the study were developed by the researcher based on expert opinion and they were used after validity and reliability analysis. Scope of research, the achievement test and attitude test were applied as pretest to the experimental and control groups before the treatment. The same tests were applied as posttest after the treatment and as the follow up test after four (4) weeks of strip of art history. To the analysis of the data, t test for independent groups was carried out to identify the difference between the scores of experimental and control groups on the achievement test and attitude scale applied as pretest. Also, t test for dependent groups was applied for the dependant groups in the experimental and control groups.According to the data obtained from the research, it is found that the inclusion of the activities based on games in Ankara Government Art and Sculpture Museum in addition to the activities included in the curriculum is effective in increasing student achievement and the attitude of the students towards the Art classes of experimental group. It is seen that although it has no effects on the development of the attitude of the control group, who had only activities included in the curriculum of the Art classes in the state schools, it affects the development level of achievement of the students. However, the score of the achievement test of experimental group who had exposure to the museum activities in addition to the activities in the curriculum has been higher than the score of the control group who had exposure only to the activities in the curriculum.Based on the data gained from the research, museum activities based on games with the help of related literature, different from the activities in the curriculum, supports particularly the effective learning and in terms of this and positive effect of games on learning recommendations for the inclusion of the museums in the educational process were developed.