The effect of the use of digital educational games on the academic success of students in secondary school 8th grade Turkish grammar teaching

The game, which is as old as the history of humanity, has a special meaning and importance for children. The game is both a fun and a learning tool for the child. Children can play games in a wide variety of environments (computer, game console, mobile phone, etc.) with the opportunities provided by changing technology. It is known that games, which are an indispensable entertainment tool for the child, are used as an effective educational tool today. Especially computer games are widely used in education. These environments, which are known as game-based learning environments for children's learning and are widely used today, form the basis of this study. In this research, the effect of the use of digital educational games on the academic achievement of students in the teaching of 8th grade Turkish grammar in secondary school was examined. The study group in the research consists of 32 eighth grade students who continue their education in a secondary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Eleşkirt district of Ağrı province in the 2021-2022 academic year. One of the two different classes with close general averages was chosen randomly as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The experimental group students consisted of 16 people, and the control group students consisted of 16 people. In the research, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used. For 12 weeks, curriculum-oriented Turkish grammar lesson was taught with traditional learning methods in the control group, while Turkish grammar lesson was taught in the experimental group supported by educational digital games. Before and after the application, two "Achievement Tests" consisting of 20 questions in the TEOG exam were administered to the experimental and control groups, and the data were collected after the exam. SPSS 22 (The Statistical Packet for the Social Sciences) statistical program was used in the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the analysis, no significant difference was found in the comparison of the pre-test results between the groups. However, a significant difference was found between the post-test results applied to the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. According to the results obtained from these findings, it has been concluded that teaching with both educational digital games and traditional learning methods is effective in learning the subject of structure in the Turkish lesson. Keywords: Teaching Turkish Grammar, Digital Educational Games, Academic Success.