Teaching propaganda techniques to secondary school students

Although the emergence of propaganda, as a concept, dates back to 1622, there have been numerous studies proposing that it emerged with social life. Accordingly, it is possible to encounter the elements of propaganda even in ancient states. Propaganda, which has gained a scientific meaning since the First World War, has been used for various purposes until today. Propaganda, which has always been used in negative senses in its historical adventure, is mostly used as a one-way communication today. It is used in many fields varying from politics to economy, from military to education, from cinema to commerce. In this case, it is crucial that propaganda is questioned, discerned and even used by intelligent people for positive purposes, rather than being good or bad. Therefore, as emphasized in the Turkish Curriculum (2019), those who are able to research, discover, interpret, and construct in mind; able to access, organize, query, use and generate information are required. Individuals with a critical point of view should be raised. Individuals with these characteristics should be aware of the use of information for different purposes. In this study, it was aimed to raise secondary school students' awareness on propaganda through the teaching of propaganda techniques. To this end, the students were taught seven basic propaganda techniques, named as calling, glittering generalities, transfer, reference, plain folk, card stacking and train technique, which were determined by the Propaganda Analysis Institute. The mixed research model, in which at least one qualitative and one quantitative research can be used, was employed in the current study. The study was carried out with fifteen 7th grade students in Düzce province in 2020-2021 academic year. In oder to determine sample of the study, typical case sampling method requiring purposeful sampling method that meets certain characteristics and criteria, to select an average case without extraordinary features, was used. The attainment test, which was prepared by the researcher by associating the critical thinking criteria of NPEC with propaganda techniques and approved by the field experts, was applied before the application. After the acquisition test, propaganda techniques were taught. The applied activities were scored by two teachers other than the researcher, and the students' scores in each activity were evaluated by taking the average of the two raters' scores. At the end of the teaching activities, propaganda techniques teaching acquisition test was applied as a post-test. SPSS program was used to evaluate pre-test and post-test data. After the application, it was revealed that there was a significant difference in the level of discerning the propaganda elements of the students and they could notice the propaganda elements. By comparing the scores obtained in the teaching activities with the post-test scores, it was revealed that there was no significant difference between the scores obtained by the students in both the activities and the post-test application. The results obtained were evaluated with the students' opinions obtained through the student interview form. As a result, with the teaching of propaganda techniques, students were able to acquire the related acquisitions of NPEC critical thinking criteria.