The effect of computer-assısted teaching methods on academic achievement and permanence in teaching of the 'resources of our country' unit in the social studies lesson of the secondary school 6 grades

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of teaching the Resources of Our Country unit introduced in the Social Studies lesson of the secondary school 6th grades through using computer-assisted teaching methods on the students' achievement and the permanence of learned information. Experimental research design was used in this study and the achievement test developed by the researcher was utilised as the data collection tool. The study group consisted of 60 students in 6-A and 6-B classes in a secondary school located in Kastamonu city centre who studied in the second semester of 2012-2013 academic year. The socio-economical levels of the students in this research was taken into account so that the selected research groups were kept at equal level. The purpose of this study is to investigate and present the difference between the lesson subjects taught using computer-assisted teaching methods and the lesson subjects taught with traditional (classical) teaching methods in terms of lesson achievement and permanent learning. The previous studies and findings about these methods were reviewed and examined. Moreover, the findings from this research have led to the result that the computer-assisted teaching method improves students' achievement and provides them with permanent learning. First of all, the effect of the 6th grade Social Studies lesson subjects taught using computer-assisted teaching methods and the lesson subjects taught with traditional (classical) teaching methods on the students' academic achievement and their recall level were adapted to the experimental model used in this research. The data were compiled using the pre-test, post-test and retention (recall) test with the aid of a scale developed by the researcher. The achievement test was applied to the students before the lesson and after the lesson unit had been introduced and it was evaluated with the SPPS 16.0 programme In the previous studies on this topic, it has been stated that the use of computerassisted teaching methods and traditional (classical) teaching methods have different effects in increasing the students' academic achievement. In this study, it was found that between the experiment and control groups using two different teaching techniques, the achievement test scores related to the Resources of Our Country unit differed significantly in the pre-test and post-test. That is, the common effects of repetitive measurement factors on achievement test implementation levels between the groups using different instructional techniques (experiment group and control group) were found to be significant. According to these results, in terms of increasing students' academic achievement in and the permanence of learning of the related unit and subjects, it was found that the computer-assisted teaching method was a more effective method that the traditional teaching methods in the teaching of the Resources of Our Country unit.