Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences on the Development of Educational Science Board Games

Abstract

The expectation is that pre-service teachers that are specializing in the teaching of primary school natural science, ought to make use of teaching approaches that will allow them to engage learners in a joyful yet meaningful science learning experience. One such teaching approach to be considered is regarded as board game-based teaching. This paper investigated how natural science pre-service teachers experienced the development of educational science board games. This study draws on a conceptual understanding of gamebased education, which allows for the integration of topics within board game mechanics, board game aesthetics and board game thinking. This qualitative case study considered a focus-group discussion and photo-voice methodology as data collection techniques to capture the pre-service teachers' experiences on the development of educational science board games. Findings from the study revealed how their engagement in the development of educational science board games had an impact on their personal skill development, their professional teacher development, their development of pedagogical content knowledge, as well as their development of applicable assessment methodology that relates to the teaching of the subject natural science. On the other hand, issues surrounding the learning objectives, the complex design processes, and the lack of relevant materials available to develop the educational science board games were viewed in a less positive light. Findings from the study suggest that science teacher education programmes should be intentional in shaping pre-service teachers' skills to develop educational board games that would complement the quality of their science teaching practice.

GamesBond: A Game-based Supplemental Teaching Material for Ionic and Covalent Bonding

“…More so, using educational science board games as a teaching strategy is distinguished by various types of learning, namely, problem-based learning and cooperative learning. As students are exposed to these types of learning, higher-order thinking develops . In addition, the results also confirm that the use of board games was considered as a better methodology for cognitive training than regular conventional classes .…”

“…As students are exposed to these types of learning, higher-order thinking develops. 25 In addition, the results also confirm that the use of board games was considered as a better methodology for cognitive training than regular conventional classes. 26 Furthermore, this improvement may also be attributed to the fact that playing board games in class can also be considered as study time and active learning time.…”

Assessing Greek pre-service primary teachers’ scientific literacy

“…In a follow-up experimental context, the SLA can also be distributed as a pre-and post-test to compare diverse teaching methods or integrated in longitudinal analyses to report modification in demonstrated knowledge, beliefs, and values. Inquiry-based teaching, group dialogue and STEM-based teaching, game-based teaching can improve students' SL (Botes, 2022;Gómez & Suárez, 2020;Pebriani et al, 2022;Peffer & Ramezani, 2019;Suryaningsih et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2022;Warfa et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2021).…”

Demonstrating Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through the Development of Educational Science Board Games

“…Instructional strategies are regarded as specific teaching approaches that are beneficial towards eliciting an effective learning experience in the classroom context (Bizimana et al, 2022.). Examples of instructional strategies in the context of natural science teaching include small-group work activities, cooperative learning activities, class discussion activities, practical hands-on activities, and modelling activities, to name but a few (Botes, 2022). A characteristic feature of instructional strategies is that it allows for learning to unfold in either visual (see), auditory (hear), and kinaesthetic (touch) and reflective (think) means (Rahayu et al, 2020).…”

“…These topics inform the natural science school syllabus in the South African schooling context. The gameplay may involve trivia questions, problem solving exercises, simulation and role-playing activities, as well as other mechanics that are designed to promote learning and reinforce scientific knowledge acquisition (Botes, 2022). Bustamante et al (2020) explain that the use of educational science board games promotes collaboration and competition among learners.…”