The effectiveness of computer supported applications of game based learning in teaching verb and verb related topics

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of computer-aided game-based learning practices and related computer-aided educational games on students' grammar academic achievement and attitudes towards Turkish language and grammar. The study group consists of two branches of 7th grade students studying in a secondary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Manisa. A total of 57 students from two branches participated in the study. There were 28 students in the experimental group, 12 girls and 16 boys, and 29 students, 14 girls and 15 boys, in the control group. In this study, pretest-posttest unequalized group quasi-experimental design based on quantitative research methods was used. Educational games were developed by the researcher and the research was continued for ten weeks. While the developed educational games were used in the experimental group, the lessons in the control group were covered with the activities in the curriculum. Constructivist approach was used in both groups. All conditions were tried to be kept equal in the control and experimental groups except the method used. As achievement test the "structure success Test in Verb" belongs to Gundogdu and Donmez (2018) was used. The scale developed by Ünal and Köse (2014), whose validity and reliability were determined beforehand, was used to measure students' attitudes towards Turkish lesson. The scale developed by Pehlivan, Aydın and Uyumaz (2018) was used as the attitude scale towards grammar. The Mann Whitney U and the Wilcoxon Signed Rnaks Test were applied for data analysis and Spearman Brown correlation coefficient was calculated. When the results of the study were examined, it was found that computer-based game-based learning practices in the experimental group increased the students' Turkish grammar achievements and increased their grammatical and Turkish lesson attitudes. In the control group where current curriculum activities were applied, it was concluded that Turkish grammar achievements increased at the end of the process, but did not have any effect on their attitudes towards Turkish lesson and grammar. There was no significant difference between the Turkish grammar achievement scores of the experimental and control groups before the process, but a significant difference was reached in favor of the experimental group at the end of the process. On the other hand, while there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the attitude scales towards the Turkish course and grammar, a significant difference was reached in favor of the experimental group in the applications made at the end of the process. In other words, it has been demonstrated that computer-aided game-based learning practices are more effective on achievement and attitude variables than current curriculum activities. When the results were analyzed according to the gender variable, it was found that the girls were more successful in terms of grammar achievement among all the students who participated in the study, but it was concluded that there was no significant difference in their attitudes towards grammar and Turkish lessons.