THE IMPACT OF USING BOARD GAMES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SITUATIONAL MOTIVATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

<doi>10.24250/jpe/SI/2023/CJ/CAB/MC/</doi>

Abstract

The study highlighted the impact of an activity program in which board games were used to develop situational motivation in first-grade school children. The participants (ages 6-8 years) were primary school students from rural areas randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG; n= 13) and control group (CG; n= 13). The level of situational motivation was measured with the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) developed by F. Guay, R. J. Vallerand, and C. Blanchard (2000). After initial testing, for eight weeks, ten board games (Dixit, Domino in syllables, my first 5-second game, Tetris, Vocalopoly, etc.) were introduced twice a week for the development of mathematical and linguistic skills. The results of the comparison t-test on paired samples, as well as on independent samples of the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), show that there are statistically significant differences regarding the level of situational motivation in the two moments of the application of the scale, pretest, and posttest in the experimental group (t =-15.503, p<0.001), but also between the two groups (experimental and control) in the post test phase (t=10.539, p<0.001). In conclusion, the research results highlight that using board games in the activities carried out with first-grade students improves the motivation of school children.