A local history application in social studies: The case of Niğde

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of using local history activities in the teaching of the 5th grade "My Beautiful Country" unit in Social Studies course on the academic achievement of students and to determine the students' views on the use of local history teaching method in the Social Studies course. For this purpose, a trip activity in accordance with the local history teaching method and a trip to historical places and places in the province of Niğde were organized in the Social Studies course. A quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used in order to determine the effect of using local history activities on student achievement in the Social Studies course. In addition, after the excursion activity carried out within the scope of local history, qualitative opinions were obtained from the students and an interview form was used to support the experimental design. The study group of the research consists of 40 students studying in the 5th grade of Alay Şehit Oktay Önder Secondary School affiliated to the Niğde Provincial Directorate of National Education. The experimental group of the research consisted of 20 students and the control group consisted of 40 randomly selected students who were determined as 20 students. In the research, "Multiple Choice Test" and "Matching Test", which were prepared according to the determined acquisitions of the Primary School 5th grade Social Studies Lesson "My Beautiful Country" as data collection tool, and "Interview Form for Local History Practices in Social Studies Lesson" were used to determine the opinions of students about local history practices in the Social Studies lesson after the application. In the application dimension of the research, the subjects in the experimental group consisting of 20 students were carried out using activities based on the local history method for four weeks, while the lessons were carried out according to the current program in the control group consisting of 20 students. The multiple choice test and matching test were administered to the students before and after the program as pretest-posttest. After the trip activity, the interview form was distributed to the experimental group students. Data obtained from multiple choice test and matching test, which are data collection tools, were analyzed with SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and ITEMAN (Item and Test Analysis program). Content analysis method was used in the analysis of the applied interview form. According to the results of the research, the success of the students in the experimental group taught with local history activities led to a significant difference compared to the student success in the control group, where curriculum-based teaching was applied (t(38) = -3.172, p<0.05). It was determined that the teaching supported by local history activities was more effective in increasing the academic achievement of the students in the "My Beautiful Country" unit of the 5th Grade Social Studies course compared to the program-based teaching. In the interview form, in which students' opinions about the local history teaching method were determined, it was determined that the students gained local history awareness after the trip activity related to the local history teaching method. Based on the fact that each province has a local history, it is recommended that the Ministry of National Education prepare local history books for each province to provide information on local history teaching and activities for use in schools. Keywords: Social Studies Teaching, Local History, Niğde, Experimental Design