The Effects of Using Interactive Cartoons and Concept Maps on Academic Achievement in Social Studies Teaching

As an interdisciplinary subject in primary education, Social Studies is quite rich in concept variety. Since concepts are units of abstract thought and learning them a complex process, ordinary methods in the teaching of concepts prove inadequate. From this perspective, the use of various materials and technology for teaching concepts is essential in Social Studies, for materials developed using technology make learning not only fun but also permanent. In this context, making concept cartoons and concept maps – effective tools already in use for teaching concepts in social studies – interactive, enhancing their contents audio-visually, and using them for classroom activities could prove useful in teaching the subject. This study aims to reveal the effects of interactive concept cartoons and concept maps used in the teaching of Social Studies on academic performance. In the research it was used pretest posttest control group experimental design. The study group for the research was composed of the seventh grade pupils of a secondary school in the city of Trabzon. Academic Achievement tests and semi-structured interview forms were used for data collection. Academic Achievement test was simultaneously administered to the experiment and control groups as the pre-test, following which the control group was taught based on the existing curriculum whereas the experiment group was taught using the interactive concept cartoons and concept maps designed by the researchers. The experiment was concluded with the same Academic Achievement test simultaneously administered to both groups as the post-test. Following the test procedure was applied interview forms to experimental group students. According to the findings of the research it was concluded that the positive effects of academic performance of interactive cartoon and use concept maps in Social Studies teaching.

Keywords

social studies, concept cartoons, concept maps, academic achievement