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USING QUIZ GAME TO IMPROVE PUPILS’

UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE

KNOWLEDGE

BONG JAK HIAN

Laporan projek ini dikemukakan sebagai memenuhi sebahagian daripada syarat

penganugerahan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan Dengan Kepujian

(Sains Pendidikan Rendah)

KAMPUS INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

OKTOBER 2010

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USING QUIZ GAME TO IMPROVE PUPILS’ UNDERSTANDING OF

SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE

Bong Jak Hian

S2 / T4 SN2

E-mail: jhbong_hata@yahoo.com

Institute Pendidikan Guru Kampus Pulau Pinang

Abstract

The purpose of this Action Research is to find out whether quiz game can

improve pupils’ understanding of Science knowledge and control pupils

from misbehaving. Findings from the interview indicated that pupils and

teachers recommended using quiz game as one of the classroom activities.

The mean value indicated that majority of the pupils achieved high marks

in the post-test compared to the pre-test, whereby the result increased from

8.36 to 8.90. Pupils behaved well during the game compared to a normal

Science lesson, out of 41 pupils only 24 of them misbehaved. Quiz game is

an effective classroom activity that can facilitate learning and control

pupils’ from misbehaving in the classroom.

The Context

From the past experience during practicum in some school, almost everyday there

will get a relief class from other teachers. Because it is so sudden, there is no time for

preparation. Sometimes there is a relief class for unfamiliar subjects like Bahasa Arab,

Art Education and Music. The teacher should not allow the pupils to just sit and do

nothing in a relief class. This not only wastes their time but also gave them the

opportunity to misbehave. Pupils will tend to make noise, walk around the classroom,

disturb others, ask for drinks, and go to the toilet. Teaching and learning in the

classroom could be maximized with proper lesson planning by the educators.

Meaningful classroom activities can stimulate pupils to think and help them to

practice their existing knowledge. A quiz game would be a good choice for the

teachers to fill the free period meaningfully since it is interesting and relaxing and at

the same time, enable the pupils to learn within a short period of time. Pupils should

realize their own responsibility as a learner. A great learner must be initiative and

proactive to learn whenever there is a chance. They must learn to appreciate time and

make good use of every second of time meaningfully and beneficially to learn and

improve themselves. They need to respect teacher and obey rules in school everyday.

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Research Focus

An interesting classroom activity surely will attract pupils’ attention throughout

the period and also helps pupils in learning. Quiz game is recommended by most of

the teachers and pupils in school, so as most researchers in the world. It bring benefits

for the both the pupils and the teacher. McCloud (2008) said that quiz game is good

for reviewing and reinforcing previously taught material. It can also raise the

understanding and it is good for warming up or ending lesson. It allows the students to

practice listening to natural, non-scripted English during the quiz game activity. Not

only this, quiz game is also believed can helps in controlling pupils from misbehaving.

According to Vernon (2005), during the game, the teacher should establish the rules

and consequences for good and bad behavior, apply them consistently, set a good

example, use peer pressure and points, and use attention grabbing cues. The teacher

should also create teams and deduct or reward behavior points to a team's score

during a game. Your class will respond naturally by using peer pressure to keep the

naughty children from misbehaving. Quiz game is a very useful strategy in making

pupils’ engage in learning and also make them well-behaved.

Action Plan

The objective of this action research is to find out whether the quiz game can

improve pupils’ understanding of Science knowledge and control pupils from

misbehaving. The research questions are: Can quiz game help to improve pupils’

understanding of Science knowledge? Can quiz game help to control pupils from

misbehaving during the learning process? The participants of the study will be a

number of 28 pupils consisting of 12 boys and 16 girls were involved in this action

research. They were all Year Three students from a primary school situated in Penang,

Malaysia. To solve the problem, researcher conducted a quiz game among the Year 3

pupils after the topic Magnet was taught.

Implementation of Action Plan

First of all, the school teachers and pupils were interviewed in order to obtain

their ideas and opinions on using quiz game as a teaching and learning activity inside

the classroom. A quiz game was then conducted with Year 3 pupils during the relief

class period in order to check its effectiveness towards improving pupils’

understanding of Science knowledge. At the beginning, Year 3 pupils were taught the

topic Magnet. The pupils sat for a pre-test that consisted of 10 objective questions in

order to check their prior understanding on the topic taught. After the pre-test, a quiz

game was conducted during the relief class, the pupils were guided to play the game.

After the quiz game, pupils sat for a post-test that consisted of 10 objective questions.

On the other hand, students’ misbehaviors were observed during the normal lesson

when pupils were taught the Science topic. The number of students that misbehaved

in every 10 minutes was recorded in an observation checklist. Similarly, during the

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quiz game, the teacher also observed students’ misbehaviors and recorded in the

observation checklist to see how many of them misbehaved in every 10 minutes.

Data Collection Methods

The researcher used three types of data collection methods, which are

interview the teachers and pupils conducting pre-test and post-test (Appendix A) for

the pupils and using a observation checklist (Appendix B). The school teachers and

pupils were interviewed in order to obtain their ideas and opinions about using quiz

game as a teaching and learning activity inside the classroom. A pre-test and post-test

were done by the pupils before and after the quiz game conducted, both consisted of

10 objective questions. The result will be analyzed to show the achievement of the

pupils and the effectiveness of the quiz game towards improving Science knowledge.

Observation checklist also used to record pupils’ misbehaviors during normal class

and during the quiz game. This was done to investigate the change in behaviors

among the pupils.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The school teachers and pupils were interviewed in order to obtain their ideas and

opinions about using quiz game as a teaching and learning activity inside the

classroom. The interview had been transcripted and analyzed.

Teacher A said: “… dengan melakukan aktiviti ini murid akan mengelak daripada

membuang masa dan dapat mengelakkan diri daripada melakukan

perkara-perkara yang tidak berfaedah.” (Interview, 4/8/10).

The statement above showed that the teacher believe that the quiz game allows pupils

to engage in learning. Pupils can avoid themselves from misbehaving and wasting

their time by doing meaningless job.

Teacher B said: “Keburukan pertandingan kuiz, yang pertama, bagi murid lemah

mereka kadang tidak berbuat dengan baik mereka akan berasa kecil hati.

Berbanding dengan murid yang pandai mereka akan berebut-rebut untuk

menjawab. Murid-murid yang lemah hanya akan melihat sahaja, berasa rendah

diri di kalangan mereka. Yang kedua ialah dari segi disiplin akan berlaku

bising…” (Interview, 4/8/10).

The teacher gave some disadvantages of conducting quiz game in classroom. Teacher

said weak pupils may feel low confident if they cannot answer the quiz question well.

Besides, pupils also tend to make noise during the game.

Pupils B respond: “Murid bermain dalam kelas. Buat bising.” (Interview, 4/8/10).

Most pupils also said that the classroom can become noisy easily when playing the

game. Therefore, teacher should conduct the quiz game properly so that pupils can

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learn effectively and well-behaved during the period.

Table 1.0 Mean and standard deviation for pre-test and post-test result

Mean Standard Deviation

Pre-test 8.36 1.32

Post-test 8.89 1.21

From table 1.0 above, the result of post-test showed a clear increase compared to

the result of the post-test. There were more pupils obtained full marks (10 marks) in

the post-test. The number of pupils increased from 6 pupils to 11 pupils. The mean

value obtained for pre-test is 8.36 while the mean value for post-test is 8.89. The

mean value of the pre-test was higher than the post-test. This indicates pupils

achieved high marks in the post-test compared to the pre-test.

Table 2.1 Pupils behavior during a normal lesson.

Observation during normal lesson

Time Interval Types of misbehavior performed by pupils Sum

Legend

T P D M W A

2.20 – 2.30 3 2 1 2 1 0 9

2.30 – 2.40 2 2 0 2 0 0 6

2.40 – 2.50 3 0 0 1 0 0 4

2.50 – 3.00 2 0 1 0 0 2 5

3.00 – 3.10 3 3 0 0 2 1 9

3.10 – 3.20 5 2 0 1 0 0 8

Total 41

Legend: T – talking with friends M – make noise

P – Playing around W – walk around

D – distract by other stuff A – ask for drink and toilet

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Table 2.2 Pupils behavior during the quiz game.

Observation during the quiz game

Time Interval Types of misbehavior performed by pupils Sum

Legend

T P D M W A

2.20 – 2.30 3 2 1 1 0 0 7

2.30 – 2.40 2 1 0 2 0 0 5

2.40 – 2.50 3 1 1 2 0 0 7

2.50 – 3.00 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

3.00 – 3.10 2 0 0 0 0 0 2

3.10 – 3.20 1 0 0 1 0 0 2

Total 24

Legend: T – talking with friends M – make noise

P – Playing around W – walk around

D – distract by other stuff A – ask for drink and toilet

Pupils’ behaviors have improved during the quiz game comparing to a normal

lesson. The number of pupils that misbehave before and after the quiz game had

decreased from 41 pupils to 24 pupils.

Reflection and implications

Quiz game is a good tool to use as one of the classroom activities since it not only

facilitates learning, but also make more pupils in learning Science and grabs their

attention throughout the lesson. During the interviewed session, most teacher claimed

that quiz game motivate pupils in learning and pupils also claimed that they like to

have quiz game as classroom activity because it is fun. After the quiz game

implemented among the pupils, positive findings were obtained. Majority of the

pupils achieved higher marks in the post-test with a mean value of 8.89 if compared to

the result in pre-test, which a mean value of 8.36. There was also an improvement of

pupils’ misbehaviors during the quiz game compared to a normal lesson. The number

of pupils that misbehave before and after the quiz game had decreased from 41 pupils

to 24 pupils. Quiz game can be effectively benefits the pupils if it is conducted

properly by the teacher. Quiz game take a host of forms and can be applied to nearly

any subject. There are benefits in incorporating games into the classroom. By stepping

away from the traditional lecture and teaching methods of past, educators can allow

their students to benefit from high-interest, interactive games. (Schreiner, 2010).

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The next step

Quiz game was proved to be one good example of classroom activity. But still,

teachers should plan the activity carefully and then conduct the game in the classroom

properly in order to make sure the game is effective and achieved its objectives. Some

weaknesses on the action plan were found which can be improve to make this

research more reliable and make the quiz game more convenient to be carry out in the

classroom. In a classroom, there may assist mix ability of pupils. There were excellent

pupils and weak pupils in the class. To reduce this problem, the educator should try to

modify the quiz question so that they are consisted of easy, moderate and hard

questions to suit the mix abilities of the pupils. Firstly, for this research, after one

topic had finished taught by the teacher, a pre-test should be given to the pupils

immediately. Then, the quiz game should be carrying out as soon as possible, not

more than a week. A post-test should be given immediately after the quiz game. In

other words, the whole process should go continuously and only a few days break are

allowed before the date of conducting the quiz game. Secondly, this research only

done in one cycle. Therefore, the researcher recommends that it will be much better if

the action plan can be repeated for 2 to 3 cycles to make the final conclusion more

reliable.

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