Developing spatial literacy skills of fourth grade primary school students in the social studies course

Spatial literacy contents within the scope of the social studies course support the process of understanding spatial relations, using the concepts and tools necessary for this, and making evaluations. Thus, individuals who can read and use different forms of data and produce new ones are brought into society. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the teaching process supported by activities on the spatial literacy skills of 4th grade primary school students. Exploratory design was preferred and quantitative and qualitative approach were used together. The quantitative process of the study was structured according to a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group, and achievement test and skills test were used as data collection tools. Quantitative data were analyzed with unrelated samples two-way ANOVA test using SPSS 25.0 package program. The qualitative process was shaped according to the phenomenology design and a semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. In order to support the findings obtained in the study, worksheets and behavior observation forms were also used in the experimental group. The research was conducted with a total of 40 students, 20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group, at Tepealan Primary School in Korgan district of Ordu. According to the results obtained from the student interviews, it was seen that the students developed positive opinions about the process. The results obtained from the achievement test revealed that student achievement differed in favor of the experimental group according to the measurements; it did not show a significant difference according to the groups and their common effects. On the other hand, a significant difference was found in the results of the skills test according to the measurements, groups and common effects. The fact that the structured instruction for the experimental group had a similar content with the skills test was effective in making sense of this result.