The Effect of Educational Games on Students' Attitudes Toward Social Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of educational game-based instruction on the attitudes of fifth-grade students in a social studies course. In the research where the experimental method was used, a 'pre-test-post-test control group research design' was applied. There are 25 students in both the experimental and control groups. The study was conducted with two groups of fifth-grade students at a public school in a medium-sized city center in Türkiye. The working group was selected using a convenient sampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods. The Social Studies Attitude Scale was used as a data collection tool. For the pre-test comparison of the Social Studies Attitude Scale, an independent samples t-test was applied, and for the post-test comparison, the Mann Whitney U analysis was applied. An examination of the findings reveals that educational game-based instruction positively impacts students' attitudes toward the course. Data indicates a statistically significant increase in students' attitude scores toward the course in the experimental group. The study concluded that the integration of educational games into social studies instruction enhanced students’ learning experiences by making them more enjoyable and engaging. Therefore, students stated that they preferred educational games in teaching social studies and that this situation increased their motivation for the course.