TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the effectiveness of an educational card game for learning how human immunology is regulated
AU - Su, Tzu Fen
AU - Cheng, Meng Tzu
AU - Lin, Shu Hua
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/9/2
Y1 - 2014/9/2
N2 - This study was conducted in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of an educational card game we developed for learning human immunology. Two semesters of evaluation were included to examine the impact of the game on students' understanding and perceptions of the game-based instruction. Ninety-nine senior high school students (11th graders) were recruited for the first evaluation, and the second-semester group consisted of 72 students (also 11th graders). The results obtained indicate that students did learn from the educational card game. Moreover, students who learned from playing the game significantly outperformed their counterparts in terms of their understanding of the processes and connections among different lines of immunological defense (first semester: t = 2.92, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 3.45, p < 0.01) according to the qualitative analysis of an open-ended question. They generally had positive perceptions toward the game-based instruction and its learning efficiency, and they felt the game-based instruction was much more interesting than traditional didactic lectures (first semester: t = 2.79, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 2.41, p < 0.05). This finding is evidence that the educational card game has potential to facilitate students' learning of how the immune system works. The implications and suggestions for future work are further discussed.
AB - This study was conducted in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of an educational card game we developed for learning human immunology. Two semesters of evaluation were included to examine the impact of the game on students' understanding and perceptions of the game-based instruction. Ninety-nine senior high school students (11th graders) were recruited for the first evaluation, and the second-semester group consisted of 72 students (also 11th graders). The results obtained indicate that students did learn from the educational card game. Moreover, students who learned from playing the game significantly outperformed their counterparts in terms of their understanding of the processes and connections among different lines of immunological defense (first semester: t = 2.92, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 3.45, p < 0.01) according to the qualitative analysis of an open-ended question. They generally had positive perceptions toward the game-based instruction and its learning efficiency, and they felt the game-based instruction was much more interesting than traditional didactic lectures (first semester: t = 2.79, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 2.41, p < 0.05). This finding is evidence that the educational card game has potential to facilitate students' learning of how the immune system works. The implications and suggestions for future work are further discussed.
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U2 - 10.1187/cbe.13-10-0197
DO - 10.1187/cbe.13-10-0197
M3 - Article
C2 - 25185233
AN - SCOPUS:84907377841
VL - 13
SP - 504
EP - 515
JO - CBE Life Sciences Education
JF - CBE Life Sciences Education
SN - 1931-7913
IS - 3
ER -