FILL IN THE BLANKS: STUDENTS WANT TO PLAY …….. AT SCHOOL

Everybody especially kids like playing games and we want them to play games at school as they become the new “streets” now. However, we do not know which games they would like to play at school. This study aims to answer "Which games do students like to play at school?" and "Why do students want to play those games?" and it was conducted with 5218 primary and middle students at the private schools in Turkey. Within the scope of the study, the opinions of the students were taken through online open-ended questionnaire. The opinions were examined using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. Afterwards, game preferences of students and their reasons for playing the game were categorized by grade level and gender. According to results of the study, the games which students would like to play at school are football, hide and seek, basketball, high above the ground and volleyball. The game preferences of the students change according to their gender; however, they show similarities according to the grade levels. Another result of the study is that students prefer games because they are fun and they have similar reasons for playing games according to both gender and grade level