The effects of animations on the child's epistemological development

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of information types in animation films on the skills of secondary school 6th grade students to learn information types. For this purpose, the research conducted with 70 students studying in the 6th grade of a state secondary school in Oğuzeli district of Gaziantep province in the 2019-2020 academic year was modelled according to the embedded design within the mixed method approaches. 24 of the students participating in the study are in the experimental group where animation films were watched, 23 in the placebo group where children's films were watched, and 23 in the control group where Turkish lessons were conducted without intervention. In the research, besides quantitative data, qualitative data related to students' and researcher's experiences were also collected. In this research, qualitative data were included in the experimental intervention process. Quantitative dimension of the study, pre-test, post-test and retention test was designed according to the 3x3 semi-experimental design with experimental, control and placebo groups and the qualitative dimension was designed according to the case study. Quantitative data of the research was collected with the Information Types Measurement Tool developed by the researcher, and the qualitative data was collected with the Form of Assessment of Information Sentences by Information Types, Semi-Structured Interview Form, Student and Researcher Diary. The experimental process took 12 weeks with the application of pre-test and post-tests. In the study, after the end of the experimental process, in the 6th week following the post-test, the retention test was applied and measurements were taken. All measurement applications were applied to all three groups simultaneously. In the research, the analysis of quantitative data was done with the SPSS 23.0 program, while content and document analysis techniques were used in the analysis of qualitative data. According to the results obtained from the research, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the students watching the animated film in favour of the post-test. In the post-tests of the experimental, control and placebo groups, a significant difference was found in favour of the experimental group. It was determined that there was no significant difference between the post-test and retention test of the experimental group. Statistically, it is concluded that animated films have a significant and lasting effect on 6th grade students' learning types of knowledge. In addition, it was concluded from the students in the experimental group that the animated films were able to teach information types in an entertaining and permanent way, from the data collected through the student diaries and through the interviews.