THE USE OF CROSSWORD PUZZLES, CHAINWORDS AND SCANWORDS IN THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHICAL LOCAL LORE IN GENERAL SECONDARY EDUCATION

Abstract

The article analyzes the use of the local lore principle of learning in the process of forming students’ geographical competencies with the use of intellectual game technologies. The authors independently developed and tested in the educational process such geographical games-exercises as crossword puzzles, scanwords, chainwords. These puzzles are directed in the field of local lore, since geographical local lore plays a significant role in the development of creative potential and patriotic consciousness of the student. Knowledge of one’s homeland and the psychological comfort of their formation are closely connected with the formation of a patriotic personality capable of converting one’s creative potential into material and spiritual goods for oneself and one’s people. In addition, the involvement of didactic game technologies in the study of nature, population and economy of the native land allows strengthening the motivation and activation of students’ perception during the educational process and forming a lasting cognitive interest in geography in general. The proposed games reflect geographical phenomena and processes, local lore objects, take into account the relevance of the horological and chronological paradigm for the formation of students’ holistic scientific picture of the world; have cognitive-developmental-educational-controlling-reproductive-diagnostic functions. Questionnaires of students and teachers involved in the pedagogical experiment the results of tests conducted after the use of intellectual games in the educational process suggest that the latter diversify the learning process, make it interesting and easy deepening knowledge of geography; they should be used in class as a group (teacher and the whole class), group (study group is divided into two or more teams), pair (teacher and one student), individual (student’s independent work) activities, as well as in group work or in quality of homework after studying each thematic section. We consider the following to be a promising direction for improving the ways of using game learning technologies in general secondary education institutions: 1) creation of computer educational geographical puzzles; 2) development of small (10–15 questions) geographical crossword puzzles (chainwords, scanwords) for each thematic section in order to increase the likelihood of using these puzzles within the time limit of the lesson; 3) creation of crossword puzzles (scanwords, chainwords) questions which would reflect the interdisciplinary links of academic disciplines (geography – biology, geography – history, geography – Ukrainian literature, geography – physics, etc.); 4) creating crossword puzzles with answers that are written before for students to formulate questions to them; 5) creating scanwords using illustrations of geographical content.