The Effectiveness of the Female Reproductive (Ferep) Board Game On 10th Grade Students’ Conceptual Understanding and Attitudes Towards the Learning of the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

The menstrual cycle is a fundamental concept that links to the concept of pregnancy and birth control. However, students not only have miss conceptions, but many have negative attitude toward the learning of this concept. This may be due to the fact that the existing tools generally used to deliver this concept fail to effectively promote active learning, are making it boring and difficult for learners. This study therefore developed a board game to actively educate high school students on the integrative concept as it has been repeatedly found that board game can help promote active learning and enhance student understanding in science concepts, but no board game on this concept were reported. A one-group pre-test and post-test design was conducted to explore the effectiveness of the board game with 118 tenth graders. The finding showed the board game can promote both conceptual understanding and positive attitude toward learning this topic. More specifically, there was a statistically increase in conceptual understanding of concept, particularly in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and birth control. Also, students’ expressed attitudes toward learning menstrual cycle based on a questionnaire were found to become more positive after playing the game. It is therefore recommended that the use of this board game can be useful for educating adolescences which can be used either formally in classroom or, perhaps, informally at home.