The effect of out-of-school learning environments on perception of change and continuity skills in social studies teaching

In a rapidly changing world with the impact of technological advances, individual and social needs are changing day by day and the competencies that should be possessed are also changing in this direction. It is important to raise individuals who have the necessary knowledge, skills and equipment in line with the needs of the age and who can produce solutions to the problems they face. In this context, social studies is one of the most basic courses aiming to raise effective and responsible citizens who put social development at the center. Among the basic skills in the social studies curriculum, the acquisition of perception of change and continuity is important. The individual's ability to see the differentiation in the historical process from the past to the present, in his/her environment and in the world, and to foresee the situations that may continue or may occur in the future depends on his/her ability to perceive change and continuity. In this study, it was aimed to determine the effect of the activities carried out in out-of-school learning environments in social studies teaching on the development of students' ability to perceive change and continuity. Convergent parallel design, one of the mixed method designs, was used in the study. Quasi-experimental design with pre-test-post-test paired control group was preferred in the quantitative dimension of the research, and case study was preferred in the qualitative dimension. The study group of the research consisted of 65 4th grade students in a primary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Konya province in the 2022-2023 academic year. Academic achievement test, open-ended question form, semi-structured interview form, activity evaluation forms, rubric, self-assessment form, researcher and student diaries, observation notes, activity samples, photographs and video recordings were used as data collection tools. ANOVA test, which is one-way analysis of variance, and rubrics were used to analyze quantitative data, and content analysis was preferred to analyze qualitative data. Statistical package program, qualitative data analysis program and rubrics were used. According to the research findings, at the end of the activities carried out in out-of-school learning environments for the development of change and continuity perception skills, a significant difference was found within the group in the experimental and control groups in the academic achievement test analysis. Although there was an increase in favor of the experimental group between the groups, no statistically significant difference was found. It was found to be moderate in terms of effect size. In the open-ended question form analysis, a difference was found in favor of the experimental group. In the qualitative dimension, it was seen that the students had positive opinions about the activities carried out in out-of-school environments, and the aspects of seeing the change in time, comparing the past and present, getting to know our history and culture, finding it more useful, fun and memorable compared to the lessons taught at school came to the fore in their thoughts. In addition, self-efficacy, participation in activities and performance levels of the experimental group were found to be quite high.