The effect of game-based science teaching on the academic achievement and attitudes of primary school students

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of game-based science teaching on the academic success and attitudes of third-grade primary school students in the "Let's Get to Know the Matter" unit. The study was conducted in five weeks in Isparta province at a private school and a public school affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in the 2022-2023 academic year. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was employed in the study. The research group consisted of 87 students. The data collection tools used in the study were the "Let's Get to Know the Matter Unit Academic Success Test" and the "Attitude Scale for Science and Technology Course." Before the implementation, both the experimental and control group students were administered the "Let's Get to Know the Matter Unit Academic Success Test" and the "Attitude Scale for Science and Technology Course" as pre-tests. In the implementation phase, joint and separate lesson plans were created for the experimental and control groups. After using the common lesson plans, separate lesson plans were utilized for the experimental group in order to test the effect of the game, where game applications began. The students in the experimental group completed the teaching process using the "Fenopoli" game, while the control group completed the process using the appropriate methods outlined in the curriculum. After the implementation, the "Let's Know Matter Unit Academic Success Test" and the "Attitude Scale for Science and Technology Course" were administered again as post-tests to both groups. To test the sub-problems of the study, independent samples t-test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, and Mann Whitney U Test analyses were conducted. According to the analysis results of the success tests and success gain scores, a significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group that utilized game-based learning methods. However, when examining the attitude scores and attitude gain scores, no significant difference was observed in favor of the experimental group. In line with these results, it can be stated that the game-based teaching method increases student success and therefore should be used more frequently in the course processes.