A Meta-Analysis Study on the Effectiveness of Board Game Use in Elementary Education

The purpose of this study is to confirm the effect size estimates for the effectiveness of board games in elementary education. To this end, 19 journal thesis studies published in Korea were analyzed. The results of this study are as follows. First, since 2016, studies on board games has continued steadily and focused on students from third to sixth grade. The effect size according to the duration of board game use was highest(ESᵣ: 1.189, 95% CI: 0.736~1.642) in the range of 11 to 15 hours. Second the overall effect size of the effectiveness of board games in elementary education was .990, which was found to have a midium to large effect. Third, the use of board games in elementary education was divided in two domains in these studies; learning domain and cognitive-affective domain, both of which showed significant results, with the learning domain showing a greater effect. Fourth, this study showed a positive effect based on the analysis using a random-effects model, but there was significant heterogeneity among the studies. And there is a possibility of publication baias. Based on these research results, discussions were held and implications for future research directions and directions for further research were suggested.