GAMES IN CHEMISTRY TEACHING: A LITERATURE REVIEW IN A BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL BETWEEN 1995 AND 2021

Abstract

This literature review aimed to unveil, analyze, and problematize the content of articles involving the theme of games published in the last 26 years by the journal Química Nova na Escola with the purpose of pointing out some of the main characteristics and most relevant peculiarities of such publications. To this end, we conducted a qualitative literature review in all issues and volumes of the journal until the year 2021. We found 37 articles that addressed the aforementioned theme. Thus, we studied these articles using the content analysis technique, which led to the following categories: i) school subjects focused on the content addressed in the games; ii) year of publication and purpose of the game; and iii) journal section and place of origin of the authors and co-authors of the articles. With the study of these categories, it was possible to understand the following aspects: subject addressed, content covered, objective of the game, year of publication, section of Química Nova na Escola where it was published and place of origin of the authors and co-authors of the papers. One of the findings was that most of the articles analyzed dealt with traditional chemistry content commonly used in high school. Moreover, a large part of the games present in the articles aimed to enable effective learning of Chemistry, as well as many of the articles analyzed were from large brazilian urban centers, such as Goiás, Distrito Federal and Rio de Janeiro, to the detriment of states such as Amapá and Piauí, for example.