A GAME-BASED LEARNING APPROACH TO IMPROVING STUDENTS’

LEARNING ACHIEVEMENTS IN A NUTRITION COURSE

JOURNAL REVIEW

TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology ? April 2011, volume 10 Issue 2

Jui-Mei YIEN Department of Leisure Management, Leader University, Taiwanrinnayien@yahoo.com.tw

Chun-Ming HUNG Department of Information and Learning TechnologyNational University of Tainan, Taiwan hcm@mail.htps.tn.edu.tw

Gwo-Jen HWANG* (Corresponding Author)Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education National Taiwan University of Science and

Technology, Taiwan gjhwang.academic@gmail.com

Yueh-Chiao LIN Tainan Municipal Haidong Elementary School Taiwan yuchlin@mail.htps.tn.edu.tw

Prepared by:Mohd Zaki b MahmoodM20092000869

Prepared for:

Prof. Madya Dr. Abdul Latif bin Haji Gapor

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore the influence of applying a game-

based learning approach to nutrition education.

quasi-experimental nonequivalent-control group design was adopted in a four-week learning activity.

The experimental group learned with computer games, while the control group learned with the traditional teaching approach.

The results showed that the learning achievement in the experimental group was significantly better. Similar results were obtained in terms of the learning interest of the students. most of the students revealed quite positive attitudes toward the use of the game-

based learning. An in-depth analysis showed that there was no significant difference between

genders.

INTRODUCTION Shaping healthy habits has become very important with the fast development

of information technology and rapid social change. Nutrition education has been recognized as a crucial factor in promoting good

health and the healthy eating habits need to be shaped in childhood. School students spend a long time at school, so the school environment can

have a certain degree of influence on their eating habit. difficult to conduct effective nutrition learning activities due to most students

show low interest in nutrition and health courses. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education appointed the Medical School of National Taiwan

University to put together a team consisting of experts and scholars to establish a health e-learning website (http://health.edu.tw/health/portal/about/about00/index.jsp).

This study attempts to investigate the influence of the game-based learning approach on nutrition cognition, improving nutrition attitudes and building the food and drink habits of third graders via computer games provided in the website. The research issues are given as follows:1. The influence of the game-based learning approach on the students’ learning

achievements in the nutrition course.

2. The influence of the game-based learning approach on students’ learning attitudes toward the nutrition course.

3. The influence of the game-based learning approach on the food and drink habits of students.

4. The influence of the game-based learning approach on students.

5. Students’ feedback regarding the game-based learning approach for nutrition education.

LITERATURE REVIEW Games have been recognized as being a good tool to promote learners to

actively participate in learning activities.(Alessi & Trollip, 1984; Blaid & Lambert, 2010 ; Kirikkaya,ISERI, & Vurkaya,2010)

Researchers have indicated that game-based learning could be the best way to trigger students’ learning motivation.(Provost, 1990; Papastergiou, 2009a; Dickey, 2010; Huang, 2010)

a game-based learning approach might provide a good chance to stimulate children’s abstract thinking during the process of cognitive development, and further foster their higher order thinking ability.(Carbonaro, Szafron, Cutumisu, & Schaeffer, 2010)

studies have demonstrated the ease of use and usefulness features of computer games by applying the game-based learning approach to a variety of learning activities(Bourgonjon, Valcke, Soetaert, & Schaeffer, 2010)

through computer games which focus on nutritional education in primary and secondary schools, the learning motivations and learning achievements can be increased, and their competences and knowledge can be promoted.(Papatergiou (2009b).

Cognitive theory has recognized as being relevant to the game-based learning approach, games are closer to the children’s world and are easily accepted by them.(Kafai, 1995)

games can help children develop problem-solving skills. (Seonju, 2002; Chuang & Chen, 2009; Lee & Chen, 2009)

RESEARCH DESIGNStudy adopted a quasi-experimental nonequivalent-control group design. This study lasted for four weeks, and each week included one nutrition education class. Participants

Sixty-six 3rd graders in 2 classes of elementary school in Southern Taiwan One class assigned as Experimental and the others the Control Group. Each group consist of 18 male and 15 female students.

Tools nutrition knowledge test developed by Lo (2006) was adopted to evaluate the learning

achievements. the questionnaire developed by Lin(2004) was used to measure the students’ learning

attitudes toward the nutrition course. The questionnaire consisted of twenty items on a five-point Likert scale.

feedback of the students regarding the game-based learning approach was conducted through a survey consisting of twelve items on a five-point Likert scale.

Learning ActivitiesTable 1. The four units for teaching activities on nutrition education

RESULTS (1) Learning Achievements

Table 2 shows the descriptive data and ANCOVA for the results of the nutrition knowledge posttest. The influence of the pretest scores on the nutrition knowledge test was excluded, and the learning achievements between the two groups were significantly different (F =20.01, p < .001). The adjusted mean of the experimental group was 17.39 while that of the control group was 14.64, implying that the learning achievement of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group, showing that computer game-based instruction can effectively promote students’ nutrition knowledge.

Learning Attitudes

As shown in Table 3, the learning achievements between the two groups were not significantly different (F =.19,p=.66, p>.05) after the influence of the nutrition knowledge pretest scores were excluded. The adjusted mean for the experimental group was 88.98 whereas the adjusted mean for the control group was 88.36. The score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group, but there was no significant difference between the two. Computer game-based instruction was not shown to enhance the nutrition attitudes of the students any more than multimedia PowerPoint instruction.

RESULTS (2) Food and Drink Habits

Table 4 shows the descriptive data and ANCOVA for the post-test results of the food and drink habit questionnaire. The influence of the pretest scores of the food and drink habit questionnaire was excluded, and the learning achievements between the two groups were significantly different (F =4.17, p=.05, p<0.05). The adjusted mean of the experimental group was 89.28 whereas that of the control group was 86.05. The learning achievement of the experimental group was better than that of the control group, showing that computer game based instruction can effectively enhance student food and drink habits.

Learning Achievements between Genders

Table 5 shows the ANCOVA results on the posttest scores of the nutrition knowledge test and the post-questionnaire ratings for nutrition attitudes and food and drink habits between the two genders by excluding the influence of corresponding pr-test scores and pre-questionnaire ratings. It was found that there is no significant difference between genders in terms of the three aspects, implying that the game-based learning approach is helpful to both genders in improving their learning achievements and learning attitudes.

RESULTS (3) Feedback on the Game-based Learning Approach

Table 6 presents the survey of teaching viewpoints on computer game-based learning. In Part 1 ‘Influence of computer games on nutrition knowledge’ - showing that the students

highly confirm the influence of computer games on nutrition knowledge learning. In Part 2 ‘Influence of computer games on attitudes toward nutrition’ - indicating that the

students are positive toward the influence of computer games on nutrition attitudes. In Part 3 ‘Influence of computer games on food and drink habits’ - This reveals that the students

hold positive views toward the influence of computer games on food and drink habits. In Part 4 ‘Viewpoints on computer game-based learning’ - This suggests that the students

confirm the influence of computer games on their food and drink habits and hope to apply game-based learning to other subject.

CONCLUSIONS The experimental results reveal that computer game-based learning can

improve the learning achievements and learning attitudes of students it was found that the game-based learning approach is equally helpful to both

male and female students in terms of nutrition knowledge, learning attitudes and food and drink habits.

the findings of this study are quite positive the innovative approach not only improves the students’ nutrition knowledge, but also fosters their food and drink habits in their daily lives.

this approach can be applied to other courses in the future using mobile devices for conducting game-based learning activities in real-world learning environments, so that the students can be situated in real-world scenarios with support or hints from the learning system.