The effect of animated films in music education on the academic achievement and motivation of 5th grade students

Animated productions are widely enjoyed, especially by children. When we reflect on our our memories, we may realize we have retained elements such as character names, plotlines, and theme songs from movies or cartoons we enjoyed in our youth, without any intentional effort to learn them. Studies suggest that cartoons and animated productions can lead to incidental learning, such as the unintentional acquisition of character names, plot elements, and theme songs through repeated exposure. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that people learn more effectively through multimedia materials—created via various combinations of visual and auditory elements—than through written texts alone. Animations are regarded not only as enjoyable instructional tools but also as important for adapting to the changes demanded by the era. Building on the problem that traditional educational elements fail to align with "digital generation" students, this study was conducted based on the idea that animations have significant potential to provide education through a mode preferred by people of the digital age, who tend to spend much of their time watching videos on the internet. Accordingly, the aim of the study was determined as identifying the effects of using 3D animated short films as a digital learning material in 5th-grade music classes on students' academic achievement and their motivation toward the material. In the literature, the term "animation" is used to refer to various types of materials; in this study, the animations were designed as cartoon-style educational materials incorporating cinematic elements. The study sample consisted of 156 5th-grade students from classes A, B, C, and D at Cemil Özgür Secondary School, affiliated with the Diyarbakır Provincial Directorate of National Education (Diyarbakır Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğü). For use in the experimental group, six animated films were produced by selecting six different topics as themes, with the aim of enabling the attainment of the learning outcomes for six weeks in the music course curriculum. These films were integrated into the music lessons of the experimental group as supplementary materials over a six-week period. In the control group, music lessons were conducted based on the existing curriculum without animation support. The study employed a quantitative approach, using a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design with an experimental group and a control group, along with a survey (questionnaire) component. For data collection, the Music Course Academic Achievement Test (MCAAT) and the Instructional Material Motivation Questionnaire (IMMQ) were used. The collected data were entered into the SPSS program and analyzed using normality analysis and t-test procedures for related (paired) and unrelated (independent) groups. According to the results obtained, digital instructional materials in the format of 3D animated short films were found to have a positive effect with a high effect size on students' achievement in music classes. In addition, when students' motivation toward the instructional material used in the educational process was examined, the results were again in favor of the experimental group. Accordingly, it was concluded that using animated films as supplementary materials in music lessons positively affected student achievement and success related to the course material.