The effect of art-integrated social studies instruction on gifted students' academic achievement, attitudes and critical thinking

Gifted students often require a more challenging and advanced curriculum within their educational programs. Consequently, an educational approach that fosters a more holistic and interconnected learning experience for these students is essential. This approach should integrate various subjects, disciplines, or fields of knowledge that are tailored to these students' unique characteristics. This paper aims to address this educational need by providing gifted students with a deeper and more meaningful understanding of their coursework, and it seeks to cultivate a more holistic and interconnected learning experience by integrating art with the social studies program. To achieve this objective, modules were developed to integrate art with the social studies program for gifted students. The effectiveness of these modules was evaluated using a pre-test-post-test with control group design. The evaluation focused on academic achievement, attitude, and critical thinking skills of twenty gifted fifth-grade students enrolled in the BYF-1 Program at the Beşiktaş Science and Art Center in Istanbul during the 2023-2024 academic year, and the program lasted ten weeks. The experimental group received the social studies curriculum through art-integrated social studies course modules developed by the researcher based on the Integrated Education Program Model. In contrast, the control group continued their regular education with their existing teachers and curriculum. The research data was obtained through pre-tests and post-tests. All instruments, including the Social Studies Lesson Academic Achievement Test, Attitude Scale Towards Art-Integrated Social Studies Lesson, Rubric for Evaluating Critical Thinking in the Art-Integrated Social Studies Teaching Process, Critical Thinking Scales, and Attitude Scale Towards the Social Studies Lesson, were developed by the researcher. Nonparametric tests, including the Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, were employed to statistically analyze the data collected from the tests and scales. The research findings revealed that the art-integrated social studies program has a significant and positive impact on the academic achievement, attitude towards social studies, and critical thinking skills of gifted students. The results are discussed, and recommendations for teaching practices and future research are provided.