Effects of the elements of gamification on science success and retention: Reproduction, growth and development in plants and animalsunit

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of reproduction, growth and development in plant and animals uniton the success and permanence of science with enriched teaching method. In the research, the control group model which is not equalized from the quasi-experimental designs was used. The population of the study consisted of randomly selected the students who were studying in the 6th grade of a middle school in the center of Bismil District of Diyarbakır. This study was carried out with 63 students studying at 6th grade. While 33 students were assigned to the control group, 30 students were in the experimental group. The research lasted for 5 weeks. Prior to the study, the control group was exposed to the teaching method prescribed by the current science curriculum, and sheets enriched with the elements of gamification were used in the experimental group. The success test developed by the researcher was applied to 103 seventh grade students in the academic year of 2017-2018 for reliability analysis. Cronbach's Alpha reliability value of the success test was calculated as 0,85. At the beginning of the study, achievement test was applied to the control group and the same success test applied to the experimental group through usingthe plickers application. At the end of the study, the same success tests were re-applied as post tests and for seven months after completing the study the same test was applied to the both groups as retention test. In the analysis of the data obtained in the study, SPSS package program was used and analyzed. Independent sample T-Test, Mann Whitney U test, Wilcoxon Signed Sequence Test and Dependent Sample T-Test were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, it was seen that there was no significant difference between the students in the experimental and control groups before the application. However, a significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group at the end of the application.