Examining the impact of multimedia-supported different instructional strategies on academic achievement, motivation for learning, and engagement with materials

In the study, it was aimed to examine the effect of the learning process carried out with different teaching strategies supported by multimedia applications on students' academic achievement, constructivist learning environment perceptions, motivation towards science learning and attachment to multimedia material. The study was designed with the convergent parallel design of mixed research methods, and the quantitative research dimension of the study used a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest-retention test control group and the qualitative research dimension used a case study method. The study group of the research consists of 46 seventh grade students studying in two different classes of a secondary school in Marmaraereğlisi district of Tekirdağ province in the second semester of 2022-2023 academic year. Twenty-four students participating in the study constitute the experimental group and 22 students constitute the control group. In order to collect the data, "Academic Achievement Test", "Scale on Assessing Constructivist Learning Environments", "A Questionnaire for Motivation toward Science Learning", "Multimedia Learning Material Engagement Scale" and "Semi-structured Interview Form" were used. Before the application, the perceptions of the students in the experimental and control groups towards constructivist learning environments, their motivation towards learning science and their academic achievement levels were measured as a pre-test. In the application process, multimedia supported invention teaching in the experimental group and multimedia supported presentation teaching in the control group were carried out. The implementation process was completed in 5 weeks and approximately 20 lesson hours. After the process in which different multimedia-supported teaching strategies were applied, the perceptions of the students in the experimental and control groups towards constructivist learning environments, their motivation towards learning science, their attachment to the multimedia material and their academic achievement levels were measured as post-tests. Approximately 5 weeks after the post-test application, the academic achievement of the students in the experimental and control groups was measured with a retention test in order to evaluate the retention of the information learnt. While dependent samples t-test and independent samples t-test were used to analyse quantitative data, qualitative data were analysed using content analysis method. As a result of the statistical analyses, there was a significant difference between the post-test and pre-test academic achievement mean scores of the experimental and control groups in favour of the post-test. While it was seen that there was no significant difference between the post-test academic achievement mean scores of the experimental and control groups, a similar situation was observed in the retention test academic achievement mean scores. It was observed that there was no significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups regarding constructivist learning environments and between the post-test and pre-test mean scores of each group. Regarding their motivation to learn science, there was a significant difference between the post-test and pre-test mean scores of the control group in favour of the post-test, while there was no significant difference in the experimental group. It was also determined that there was no significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the groups' motivation for learning science. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of the students in the experimental and control groups for connecting to the multimedia material. However, in the findings obtained from student opinions, it was seen that students generally thought that multimedia applications facilitated learning, concretised the information conveyed, created a fun learning environment and provided retention in knowledge. In the study, it was also determined that the process of teaching by invention was found to be partially difficult within the scope of the students' opinions, but it was seen as an efficient and fun strategy that prompted them to think, while teaching by presentation was seen as a strategy that is efficient, fun and facilitates learning.