The effect of bibliotherapy based preventive group guidance program on social emotional learning skills of gifted students

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of bibliotherapy method on social emotional learning skills in gifted and talented students. The study has been conducted with a total of 24 (of whom 12 of them are girls and 12 of them are boys) 6th and 7th grade gifted and talented students who attend their education at a Bahcelievler ITO Science and Art Center (BİLSEM) 2020-2021 in the academic year. Within the scope of this study; Social Emotional Learning Skills Scale (Sosyal Duygusal Öğrenme Becerileri Ölçeği- SDÖBÖ) which was developed by Kabakcı and Korkut Owen (2010) were used as a data collection tool. A paired design with pretest-posttest control group was used from the experimental designs. While the dependent variable of the study is the social-emotional learning skills of gifted students, the bibliotherapy based preventive group guidance program constitutes the independent variable. Before the study, SDÖBÖ was administered to 120 gifted and talented students and 24 students were selected randomly among those who scored below average. Afterwords, 12 of the students were assigned to the experimental group and 12 of them were assigned to control group randomly and on a voluntary basis. Mann Whitney U Test was used control whether there is a difference between the pretest scores of these two groups. The preventive group guidance program based on the bibliotherapy which was developed by the researcher and consists of 8 sessions was applied. At the end of practice SDÖBÖ was applied again. At the end of an eight-week experimental study, it was found that there was a significant difference between the social-emotional learning skills of the students who participated in the bibliotherapy-based education program and those who did not participate in the program (U=26.00, p<.01). Based on the research findings, it is seen that bibliotherapy is an effective method in developing social-emotional learning skills in gifted individuals.