The effect of digital story on academic achievement in teaching human rights, citizenship and democracy course

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of using digital stories in teaching human rights, citizenship and democracy courses on students' academic success and their opinions about digital story applications. he sample of the study consists of 63 students, one of whom is the experimental group (31) and one of whom is the control group (32), studying in a primary school in Haliliye district of Şanlıurfa province in the 2023-2024 academic year. The explanatory sequential design, which is one of the mixed research methods, was used. In the study, a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group was used to obtain quantitative data. In the study, the 4th grade human rights, citizenship and democracy course rights, freedom and responsibility unit was taught to the experimental group with digital stories, while the same unit was taught to the control group with the current program. The application lasted seven weeks (14 hours). In the study, the human rights, citizenship and democracy course achievement test, which was developed by the researcher and whose validity and reliability were tested with a pilot application, was used as the quantitative data collection tool. The semi-structured interview form, also developed by the researcher, was used as the qualitative data collection tool. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 22 program and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis method. As a result of the related groups t-test conducted to compare the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group using digital stories, a significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experimental group in favor of the post-test mean score. As a result of the related groups t-test conducted to compare the pre-test and post-test scores of the control group, no statistically significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test scores of the control group. In order to test whether there is a significant difference between the difference score series of the experimental group and the control group using the digital story method, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group as a result of the t-test for unrelated samples. It is seen that the qualitative data supports the quantitative data. As a result of the interview, the students stated that they learned the subjects better in the lessons taught with digital stories. The students stated that the digital stories made the lesson interesting and fun.