Effectiveness of game-based educational material for developing spatial thinking of dyslexic students: A case study in Lower Secondary School

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design, apply and evaluate innovative educational material in Geography course in order to improve spatial thinking of dyslexic students, aged 13-14. The design was based on the results of a previous research about differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic students in the performance of spatial and geographical thinking, where it was identified that children with dyslexia face spatial deficits. Consequently, it is essential to apply appropriate teaching methods, to use specially designed educational material and to take into account students' differences. In this study, an unconventional package of educational material was applied in fifty-four participants (dyslexic and non-dyslexic students) of grades 7 (18 students) and 8 (36 students), during the period of October-November 2020, in Mytilene (Lesvos Island, Greece). The research design required the implementation of the educational activities in whole-class contexts and the objective was to determine whether the intervention was more effective for students of varying spatial skill. The package includes a comic book, a domino game, 2D maps and their corresponding 3D models. Five teaching hours were needed for the application of the instructional material. The results indicated that the designed tools stimulate students' interest and facilitate the teaching and learning of specific spatial skills. Additionally, the results showed that in this game-based environment, beside students' (dyslexic and non-dyslexic) higher achievement (87% of them had better scores at the post intervention test), the commitment in group activities was increased and there was higher motivation for Geography.