Teaching Social Studies With Games

SocialstudiesisaclassstudentsencounterinthefourthandfifthgradesofprimaryschoolinSlovenia. Itincludesgoalsfromthefieldsofgeography,sociology,history,ethnology,psychology,economy, politics, ethics, aesthetics, and ecology.Amongother didactic recommendations in the national curriculumforteaching,socialstudiesincludeexperientiallearningwithgames.Game-basedlearning enables anoptimal learning environment for students.Thepurpose of this article is to examine representationofgamesinsocialstudiesinprimaryschool.Theresearchsampleconsistedof290 studentsofthefourthandfifthgrade,177teachersteachingfourthandfifthgrade,and56observed socialstudieslessons.Resultsshowedthatteachersrarelyusedidacticgamesinsocialstudies.Results showthatteachersrarelyusegame-basedlearninginteachingsocialscience.Dependingonthetypeof agame,themostcommonlyusedoneisarole-playinggame.Mostrespondents’studentslikegamebasedlearninginsocialstudiesandalsoestimategamesarenotplayedoftenenoughinsocialstudies. KeyWoRdS Didactics, Learning, Games, Primary School, Social Studies INTRodUCTIoN Socialstudiescannotbetaughtlikea“closedbox”–itshouldreflectinteractionbetweenschool learningandwhatastudentlearnsthrougheverydayexperiences(Mishra,2015).Especiallyintheir earlyyears,childrenbestgainexperiences throughplaying.Forchildren,playingcanbeserious learning. In recentyears, the interest ingameswithinclassroomshas increased.Bognar (1987), Roskos&Christie(2000),Ginsburg(2007),Cenčič,Cotič&MedvedUdovič(2008),Miller&Almon (2009)andJuriševič(2012)areonlysomeoftheauthorsthathaveresearchedtheeffectsofgameson teachingandlearning.Theystudiedandresearchedeffectsofgamesineducationalprocessamong differentagegroupsofchildrenandpositiveeffectsondifferenteducationalstages.Afterreviewing theliterature,wediscoveredthatgamesinsocialstudiesatthisstageofprimaryschoolanditseffects onstudents’knowledgeandcompetencesisquiteanon-researchedarea.Inthisresearchpaper,we presentthesubjectofsocialstudiesinSlovenianprimaryschoolsanditsdidacticrecommendation forteachingwithexperientiallearningandgames.Thisresearchpapercontinuesbypresentingthe researchingameswithitsresultsandconclusionwithdiscussionattheend.