The effect of digital interactive learning environments on academic success and motivation in 4th grade social studies lesson

The purpose of the research is to examine the effect of teaching with digital interactive learning environments on the academic success, retention levels and motivation of primary school 4th grade students in Social Studies lesson and to obtain student opinions on this process. The method used in this research is the intertwined design of the mixed method. The application was carried out in primary school 4th grades for seven weeks. In the research, the lesson was taught in a class enriched with digital interactive learning environments during the face-to-face learning process. The lessons were taught in an interactive teaching environment in the experimental group, and in the control group, in the current classroom environment in the classroom environment for seven weeks, three hours every week, using the methods specified in the current applied course program. Applications were made on the learning area of "People, Places and Environments" within the scope of the course. The contents developed using web technologies were integrated into learning environments within the framework of learning theories. The experimental research was applied by the researcher in the Social Studies lesson's curriculum for 2023-2024 academic year in both groups. After the students in the experimental and control groups were informed about the purpose and process of the research within the ethical framework, they were informed about the interactive learning environments to be used in the course that day. The researcher provided student an experience by conducting a sample application with them. In the research, quantitative data were used to determine the students' academic success, learning permanence and motivation for the Social Studies course, and qualitative data were used to evaluate their opinions. Social Science lesson motivation scale was used to motivation of students in the experiment and control group towards the social lesson and social studies achievement test was used to measure academic success levels in social studies lesson, validity and reliability analyses of which were done by the researcher. Finally, the "Student Interview Form" containing the interview questions prepared to evaluate the students' opinions was applied. Before the experimental application, the Social Studies Achievement Test and the Social Studies Course Motivation Scale were applied to the groups as pretests. After the experimental application, the same test and scale were applied as posttests. A semi-structured interview form was used to obtain the students' opinions. The achievement test was developed by the researcher to consist of 29 questions. The average difficulty level of the developed achievement test was calculated to be. 59 and the KR 20 coefficient was calculated to be .93. While the SPSS 22 package program was used in the analysis of quantitative data, the MAXQDA program was used in the analysis of qualitative data. According to the quantitative results of the research, it was determined that digital interactive learning environments have a positive effect on academic success, learning permanence and motivation compared to current learning environments. When the qualitative results are taken into consideration, it was concluded that digital interactive learning environments are fun, support permanent learning, are interesting and facilitate learning. In this direction digital interactive learning environments are suggested to be used.