The effect of drama-based Karagöz and Hacivat activities on students' academic achievement in teaching the topic of total shadow

In this study, the effect of drama-based instruction supported by Karagöz and Hacivat activities on students' academic achievement in the topic of "Total Shadow" within the 5th grade Science course was examined. The research was conducted in the 2023–2024 academic year with 64 students—34 in the experimental group and 30 in the control group— studying in the 5th grade of a middle school located in the Özalp district of Van province. A quasi-experimental design, one of the quantitative research methods, was employed, and the "Total Shadow Achievement Test" was used as the data collection instrument. During the research process, the SPSS software was utilized for data analysis, the TAP software for calculating the difficulty and discrimination indices of the test, and JASP 0.18.3.0 for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. After the experimental procedure, students' opinions regarding the implementation were collected, and the data obtained were analyzed through content analysis.The findings revealed that, when comparing the pre-test and posttest scores of both the control and experimental groups, a significant difference was observed in favor of the post-test. Furthermore, when the pre-test scores were controlled, the post-test scores showed a significant difference in favor of the experimental group. In addition, based on the students' opinions in the experimental group, it was concluded that the activities were perceived as enjoyable, entertaining, pleasant, instructive, informative, and achievementenhancing, and that students expressed a desire for such practices to be repeated.