Board games and acquiring knowledge of history: research in university teaching

Abstract

The paper presents a qualitative research in the possibility of using board games as educational media in history teaching. The study included 58 pedagogy students divided in two groups (13 game-designers and 45 evaluators) and a subject teacher. The research was conducted during a course of The History of Schooling in Serbia (Belgrade University). Students were engaged in project-based learning, with the assignment to create board games, to play and evaluate them, and to present their views, through focus groups, on the possibilities of board games application in history teaching. Students-designers pointed out that creating a board game was a challenge that required sophisticated intellectual and emotional engagement, and that they had acquired knowledge of history with understanding and through problem-solving. Students-evaluators argued that the games had helped them in acquiring and revising the knowledge from a new and unusual perspective.