A Model for Designing Learning Games in Elementary Schools’ Social Studies Course

In order to present practitioners with a model for designing learning games and demonstrating its use and effectiveness, based on previous research, a general framework for designing learning games was identified and then utilized to design and construct a game for learning the “Iran Neighbors” lesson. The constructed game was deemed as useful when reviewed by a number of teachers and educators, and experimentally used for a period of five weeks at the fifth grade level. Based on the feedback given by both teachers and students, both the model and the constructed game were improved and reutilized in an experiment with two groups of fifth graders. One group used the developed game while the other learned the lesson with the current approach which claims to be constructivist. Pre- and post-tests comparisons of the two groups indicate a significant effect of using the learning game. This difference was maintained in a follow-up assessment a year later.