Teachers rarely use games as a teaching method in science lessons, but they are much more popular in maths and English.
Gill Denyer, investigating the use of games in education at Reading University, analysed a sample of nearly 60 teachers. She found that, although teachers used games to consolidate and revise factual information, and found them particularly useful with less able children, only 33 per cent used them in science. One third had never thought of using games in this way.
The shortage of affordable science games available to primary teachers is one reason for this. Another is teachers’ concerns that resources are appropriate to the curriculum. The majority of teachers said they would use games if they were both relevant to the topic they were working on and to the curriculum.
Gill Denyer can be contacted at 31 Upper Stanford Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey GU24 0NB
