The effects of role playing technic based on historical empathy on academic success in social sciences lesson in 7th classes of primary school

In this study, the effect of role palying technic based on historical empathy, to academic success was examined in the lesson of Social knowledge for 7th grade students. The study was done with two separate groups in a primary school in Afyonkarahisar, in the academic year 2010-2011. Pretest-posttest control model was used in this study. Pretest and posttests were used as the measurement tool besides, an interview form, in which students viewpoints had been asked, was developed. Results from measurement tools developed for each group were subjected to statistical analyses separately and meaningfulness level was taken as 0.05. T-test was used for the comparison of points received from measurement tools. Viewpoints gotten from the interview form were analyzed in the Nvivo 7 computer program. According to this study, academic success of both experiment groups to whom role playing technic based on historical empathy were applied was higher than control groups to whom Social Sciences Teaching program of 2005 methods applied. The fact that the average of the positive viewpoints from students on the basis of word analyses were 83,70% and that negative viewpoints were 14,25%, showed that role playing technic based on historical empathy overlapped with the meaningfulness level.Keywords: Historical Empathy, Role Playing, Social Sciences Education