Peer-reviewed article
Traditional games in elementary school: Relationships of student’s personality traits, motivation and experience with learning outcomes
Vladimir Trajkovik, Toni Malinovski, Tatjana Vasileva-Stojanovska, Marina Vasileva ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested whether traditional games could improve learning in elementary schools in Macedonia. Researchers taught six traditional games in five schools to 102 students across six learning sessions and compared their results to standard classes. Students who learned through games showed better learning performance and were more motivated. The study found that motivation and enjoyment of the games were the main reasons for improved learning, regardless of students' personality types.
Key points
- Students in traditional game-based learning sessions showed increased learning performance compared to standard classes on comparable topics
- Students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and their perceived experience during games, directly influenced their learning achievements
- All students accepted and benefited from traditional games equally, regardless of their personality traits
- Introverted children showed slightly increased motivation and willingness to participate in collaborative game-based learning environments
- The study used a structural equation model to examine relationships between personality traits, motivation, experience and learning outcomes
Limitations
The study does not clearly specify the duration or intensity of the intervention, the specific learning topics covered, or whether learning gains persisted over time. The comparison with standard classes lacks detail about whether groups were matched or randomly assigned.
Abstract
This study promotes a novel teaching approach for integration of children's traditional games in elementary school program. It gives description of six traditional games and their educational prospects, implemented in six learning sessions in five elementary schools in Macedonia, involving 102 students. The comparison of learning achievements between these learning sessions and standard classes revealed increased students' learning performance on comparable topics. To understand the reason for improvement, we have surveyed students after each session and tested the gathered data set via the development of a structural equation model that examines the relationships between student's personality traits, motivation and experience with learning outcomes. The findings show that students' achievements were directly influenced by students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, as well as perceived experience. Additionally, the integration of traditional games in the elementary school classroom was equally accepted among all students, since their personality traits did not directly influence their experience or learning outcomes. Still, the link between the students' personality dimensions and motivation revealed that introvert children might have slightly increased motivation and possibility to open up during game-play in such collaborative environments.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Integration of six traditional games into elementary school learning program across six teaching sessions
- Population
- 102 students across five elementary schools in Macedonia
Key finding
Students in game-based learning sessions showed increased learning performance compared to standard classes