The Effects of multimedia learning enviroment on the achievement and the attitude of the seventh grade student of elementary schhol in the social sciences class

SUMMARY The main purpose of this research was to demonstrate the effects of multimedia learning environment on the achievement and the attitude of the seventh grade students of elementary school in the Social Sciences class and on their attitude towards this course. In the research which was carried out by means of experimental method two groups of students were compared. One group of students was taught traditionally and the other one was taught within a multimedia environment. The subjects involved in this study were selected among the seventh grade students attending Şişli Terakki Vakfı Schools during the 1999-2000 academic year. Due to the fact that the research was carried out in a natural environment, the cognitive level of the students in question and their number in the classrooms were taken into consideration during the selection process. The groups were determined as experimental and control groups on the basis of random method. At the end of this determination 7A was identified as the experimental group and 7E the control. Both the control and the experimental groups were made up of 46 students. Being an experimental operation the instructional program was realized within a multimedia environment and during this research it was applied as the unit "Our Country" was being taught in the Social Sciences class. During the teaching process of the unit with the experimental group the electronic sources such as computer, television, video, slight machine and overhead projector were used as well as the audio-visual aids related to the topic. On the other hand even though the same topic was taught to the control group in the same way, the electronic devices were not used. In an attempt to test the hypotheses of the research, the grades earned from the pre-test, pre-attitude and post-test and post-attitude tests by the group of students being thought in a multimedia environment and those taught traditionallywere calculated. By taking these grades into consideration, the average grade and standard variation were found. In order to understand whether there was a meaningful difference between the post-test and post-attitude grades or not, a covariance analysis was done by controlling the pre-test and pre-attitude grades of both the experimental and the control groups. The findings of this research reveal that no differences are found with regard to gains in achievement and attitude in the multimedia group as compared to students attending traditional Social Sciences class.