Changes in Primary School Students' Ideas About History After Implementing a Gamified Intervention Programme

Abstract

The teaching of history requires a process of change to encourage the active learning of historical research methods rather than the mere memorisation and the learning of concepts. The use of gamification can facilitate the development of the historical thinking skills. This quasi-experimental research had the aim of analysing the evolution of the conceptions on history as a subject of students in the fourth year of primary education in Spain. An experimental group, which worked with an active learning methodology based on gamification and historical thinking, was compared with a control group, which followed a traditional methodology. To achieve the aims of the research, a mixed performance test was applied to the students before and after the classroom intervention. The results demonstrated a higher degree of evolution in the students' conceptions in the experimental group. Therefore, the use of gamified active learning methodologies based on historical thinking is recommended in order to contribute towards the improvement of history education.