Tags:Basic Education, Didactic games, Sciences and Teaching and learning
Abstract:
Didactic games are pedagogical tools that combine playful aspects with situations that require students' logical reasoning, initiative, imagination, attention and curiosity. When teachers decide to make use of such tools in their classes, students' interests are enhanced in what is being studied and actively inserts them into the teaching and learning process. This study aimed at: a) analyzing if knowledge worked in Sciences through the use of didactic games became more meaningful for Brazilian students at the Basic School level (6th to 9th grades), contributing positively to the appropriation of such knowledge in the short and long term; b) studying the interferences that the use of didactic games can cause in the interpersonal relationships of the students of the same group and of these with the teacher who applied them. Five didactic games (namely, ‘Prey-Predator’, ‘Natural Selection’, ‘War of the Biomes’, ‘Skeletal System’, and ‘Ionic-Covalent Bonds’) were applied to students in two different schools. Themes worked on with these games included ecological ideas, anatomical and physiological skills, and chemical principals. Questionnaires answered by students after game application were applied to evaluate their learning in both short and long terms. The percentage of assertive answers made it possible to affirm that the goal of the games was reached, since the students demonstrated to understand the relation between the concepts studied during the theoretical classes and the rules presented in the games, even after they played it months later. Another positive point to note is the intense interaction of students during the application of the games and how they were interested in knowing the theoretical concepts about the subjects in order to earn points and win the games.
Didactic Games and Knowledge Acquisition in Sciences: a Case Report