Using infographics in gaining skills related to sustainable development in social studies

The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of the Social Studies course taught using infographics on the sustainability skills of middle school students, as well as to evaluate the implementation process based on the opinions of middle school students. These skills were determined as social skills in the context of social sustainability, financial literacy in the context of economic sustainability, and environmental literacy and recycling awareness in the context of environmental sustainability. The research was conducted with 6th grade students in a state secondary school in the Seyhan district of Adana province in the 2023-2024 academic year. The experimental group consisted of 39 students and the control group consisted of 38 students. The implementation process of the research was structured to cover a total of 30 lesson hours for 10 weeks; 10 achievements consisting of the learning areas of "Economy in Our Lives" and "Technology and Social Sciences" in the Social Studies course curriculum. The research was carried out with the embedded mixed design, one of the mixed design methods. While the quantitative dimension of the research was carried out with the pre-test- post-test, experimental design with the control group, the qualitative dimension was evaluated with the basic qualitative research dimension. In the experimental group, Social Studies courses were taught using infographics prepared by the researcher for each outcome; in the control group, Social Studies courses were taught with the current curriculum and textbook. In the quantitative dimension of the research, the "Environmental Literacy Scale for Middle School Students", "Recycling Scale for Middle School Students" developed by Atabek-Yiğit, Balkan-Kıyıcı and Yavuz-Topaloğlu (2020), the "Financial Literacy Scale for Middle School Students" developed by Ertoğrol (2020) and the "Social Skills Scale for Middle School Students" developed by Kocayörük (2000) were used. In the qualitative dimension of the research, course diaries were used to record the opinions and observations of the students during the research, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 6 focus students at the end of the research. In order to determine the place of the sustainable development dimension in the learning areas of the Social Studies Curriculum, the research model was determined as embedded mixed design in the study conducted with middle school students. Content analysis was used in the qualitative dimension of the research. In the statistical analysis of the data in the qualitative dimension, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 23.0 package program was used. As a result of the research, it was seen that the Social Studies course taught with infographics created a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group on the recycling, financial literacy and social participation skills of middle school students in terms of sustainability awareness, and that although the environmental literacy skill score was higher in the experimental group, the difference was not statistically significant. As a result of the interviews conducted with middle school students and the analysis of the Social Studies diaries in which the students recorded their opinions and observations throughout the process, three themes, namely academic contribution, affective contribution and activity, and subthemes and categories related to these themes were reached. In the student diaries and interviews conducted with the focus students, it was concluded that the students had fun learning, enjoyed, were interested, curious, excited and liked the course in the Social Studies course taught with infographics. This research, which covers two learning areas of the 6th grade Social Studies course and uses infographics, can be used in different learning areas, at different grade levels of Social Studies and in different disciplines, and its results can be evaluated. Keywords: Social Studies, Social Studies course, sustainable development, sustainability literacy, infographic