The effect of educational games in Turkish course on creative writing skills and writing attitudes

The aim of the research is to determine the effect of educational games on students' creative writing and attitudes. The research was carried out with a quasi-experimental design and a mixed model was used by supporting the quantitative data with qualitative data. The quantitative data of the research were obtained as a result of the evaluation criteria form for creative writing, the attitude scale towards writing, and the focus group interview conducted with the experimental group. 170 students studying in the 5th and 6th grades of Yeşilpınar Secondary School in Defne district of Hatay constitute the study group of the research. Educational games for writing were made in the experimental group, and the current coursework was continued in the control group. The experimental procedure applied to the students was carried out within an eight-week program. Since the scores of the quantitative data compiled at the beginning and end of this process showed normal distribution, the data were analyzed with parametric tests. At the end of the application, the data obtained from the focus group interview with the experimental group were evaluated with content analysis. As a result of the research, the writing activities with educational games improved the creative writing skills and attitudes of the students. No difference was determined in the creative writing skills and attitudes of the control group, and a significant increase was observed in this direction in the experimental group. It can be thought that the increase in the writing attitude scores of the experimental group is due to the entertaining component of the educational games. It was understood that the practices continued on the control group students did not show a significant change on the writing skills and attitudes of the students. According to the students' opinions, it has been understood that the writing practices continued with educational games, in addition to their entertaining and motivating features, increase their creativity levels and have an effect on developing their imaginations with different perspectives. In this direction, students' opinions are that educational games should be included in all lessons. In line with the results obtained at the end of the research, the presence of educational games in the textbooks for the development of creative writing; ensuring that teachers receive training in planning educational games and integrating games into lessons and content; It has been suggested that students should be able to use educational games in the lessons they have difficulty with. For future research, it is recommended to examine the effects of educational games on the development of skills other than writing, to increase the number of qualitative research, and to conduct experimental studies in different groups at primary, secondary and high school levels.