The effect of story maps implementation on academic success in high school geography teaching

This study aims to determine the effect of the Story Maps application used in teaching "Migration" on the academic achievement of tenth-grade students. In this research, a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group depending on quantitative research methods was used. The study group is consists of 10th-grade students studying in a private high school in Konak district of İzmir province in the 2019-2020 academic year. A total of 40 students from two classes participated in the study were randomly assigned as the experimental and control group. The experimental group consists of 20 students and the control group consists of 20 students. During the implementation that lasted for three weeks, while the experimental group students were preparing a course material on the subject of migration with Story Maps, the control group was taught in the traditional method. Before the implementation, the academic achievement test on immigration was applied to the groups as the pretest, and afterward as the posttest. Educational Information Network (EBA) learning outcomes comprehension tests prepared by the Ministry of National Education Measurement Evaluation and Examination Services were used as the achievement test. In addition, in order to support the quantitative findings, the opinions of the experimental group students regarding the Story Maps application were taken with the semi- structured interview form at the end of the implementation. SPSS V.23 statistics software was used to analyze the quantitative data of the study. According to the pretest and posttest results, Independent Groups t-test and Dependent Groups t-test from parametric tests were applied to determine whether there is a significant difference in the data set averages. In the analysis of the interview data, content analysis was used; some codes, categories, and themes reached in the transcript of the data are visualized with tables. According to the findings obtained from the study, there is not a significant difference between the pretest scores of the experimental and the control groups in terms of their academic achievement; on the other hand, a significant difference was found between their posttest scores. According to qualitative findings, while experimental group students created their own digital Maps and migration stories in Story Maps application, theirs digital Maps literacy, creative and critical thinking skills improved. They stated that Story Maps provides a better understanding of the subject of migration, thus contributing to their academic achievement and that it is a program that can be used in different fields in their professional lives. Many studies have been carried out to address the methods and approaches to increase the interest in learning and to provide more permanent learning of geographic skills in the teaching of geography lesson topics in the High School Geography Teaching Program that is being implemented. However, new practices are needed that can attract the attention of the technology age's children and ensure their permanent learning, especially in the acquisition of geographic skills at the Primary, Secondary and High School levels. Although The Story Maps application used since 2011 especially in developed countries like the US and Canada, any study on story Maps applications at geography education in Turkey has not been encountered. When these features are taken into consideration, the study is important in terms of providing a fun and effective alternative teaching approach to educators in geography teaching in order to make students love Maps and to increase Maps literacy.