An investigation of teacher's attitudes and views on benefiting from digital games in social studies course

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes and views of teachers towards using digital games in social studies course. The universe of this research consists of social studies teachers working in the province of Van and its districts. The sample of the study is composed of social studies teachers and primary school teachers who attend social studies course in secondary schools affiliated to İpekyolu District National Education, Tusba District National Education, Edremit District National Education, Gevaş District National Education and Erciş District National Education Directorates.192 teachers participated in the study as voluntarily. In the study, the Digital Games Utilization Scale (DOYÖ) was used to collect quantitative data, and the structured interview form was used for collecting qualitative data.The qualitative data of the study were analyzed using the content analysis method, and the quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 package program. For the analysis of quantitative data, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent sample t test and one-way variance (One Way Anova) tests were performed. As a result of the research, according to the findings obtained by using the structured interview form and DOYÖ It has been determined that; teachers generally have positive opinions about teaching the subjects and gains in social studies course through digital games, but they have no experience on this subject; there is no significant difference in terms of subdimensions of DOYÖ (attitudes related to the use of digital games in the lesson, attitudes related to the negative aspects of digital games, attitudes related to the positive aspects of digital games, attitudes related to the impact of digital games on learning in the classroom and on students) and variables such as teacher age groups, professional seniority, educational status and gender variables.