Didactic games from the perspective of student motivation and learning effects

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the didactic game "Cases and Cases" on fifth-grade students' achievement and motivation in Serbian language grammar instruction. The research employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control and an experimental group, involving a total sample of 38 students. Both groups completed initial and final knowledge tests on grammatical cases as well as a motivation questionnaire, while the experimental group learned through the didactic game and the control group through traditional teaching methods. The results indicated that the groups were comparable at baseline; however, after the intervention, the experimental group demonstrated a significant improvement in achievement and an increase in motivation, whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group. The findings suggest that integrating didactic games into grammar instruction can enhance learning outcomes, student engagement, and attitudes toward learning, although further research with larger samples and longer intervention periods is needed to confirm the generalizability of the results.