Developing spatial thinking skills in social studies course of gifted students: Education module

The aim of this research is to design and implement an education module that will support spatial thinking skills in the social studies course of the 5th grade Individual Abilities Recognition program students studying at the Science and Art Center, and to examine the development of students in spatial concept and spatial thinking skills. Embedded experimental design, one of the mixed methods, was used in the research. 30 students from the 5th grade Individual Abilities Recognition program of the Science and Art Center in Muğla province in the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year were included in the research. The Spatial Thinking Skills Training Module was prepared by the researcher in order to improve the spatial concept and spatial thinking skills of the students. As data collection tools in the research; expert opinion form, spatial thinking skill test, spatial concept test, teacher and student focus group interview forms and student diaries were used. After the module was applied, parametric analyzes were made for quantitative data. Descriptive and content analysis were used for the analysis of qualitative data. As a result of the research; A significant difference was found between the pre- and post-test scores of gifted students in the Spatial Concepts Test and the Spatial Thinking Skills Test in favor of the posttest (p<0.05). In this context, it has been determined that the modules are effective in the development of the spatial concept levels and spatial thinking skills of gifted students. In line with all these results, it has been suggested that MDBEM can be used to develop students' spatial concepts and spatial thinking skills in BİLSEM social studies course.