The effect of flipped classroom model applications on academic achievements and attitude of secondary school seventh-grade students towards social studies courses

As the rapid developments and changes in technology affect every field of human life, they have also affected the education and training process, which has an indispensable place and importance in human life. Such that computers, smart boards, tablets, smartphones, etc. that technology has introduced entered the classes and started to be used very actively by teachers and students both in lessons and in normal life. In fact, the importance of using this technology in education and the necessity of the students to be ready to use these educational technologies have been seen once again in the period when Covid 19 affected the whole world. With the great impact of these developments in technology, a paradigm shift in education has started to occur over time. This has paved the way for new, different and alternative education models to emerge day by day. One of the different and new educational models that can be carried out integrated with the technology is the flipped classroom model, which is defined as home lessons and homework in the classroom. In the study, it was aimed to find an answer to the question 'Does the application of flipped classroom models have an impact on the academic achievement and attitudes of secondary school seventh-grade students towards social studies courses?' In the research, an exploratory sequential mixed method, which is one of the mixed method patterns in which quantitative and qualitative data collection tools are used together, was used. The main purpose of using this method is to contribute to the results to be more holistic, more valid and in-depth by diversifying the data sources, that is, using qualitative and quantitative data to support each other. The study group of the study consisted of a total of 74 students, 37 of whom were in the experimental group and 37 of them in the control group, attending the 7th grade in a public secondary school in the central district of Düzce province in the academic year 2018/2019. In the experimental group, the subjects were conducted in the form of watching the course videos and other educational materials (subject summary, presentation, online test, etc.) taken by the teacher in accordance with the flipped classroom model at home and practicing interactive activities related to them in the classroom whereas, in the control group, the subjects were completed by processing according to the normal traditional teaching model. The quantitative data obtained in the research, have been collected by the researcher simultaneously by applying the academic achievement test prepared for the "Science, Technology and Society" learning area and the pre-and-posttests of attitude scale towards social studies for the experimental and control group students in the study group before and after the experimental process. In the research, qualitative data collected to support quantitative data were obtained through semi-structured student and parent interview forms. IBM SPSS Statistics 24 program was used in the analysis of the quantitative research data collected related to the sub-problems sought in the context of the general problem of the research. In the analysis of normally distributed variables, two-way analysis of variance (Two-way Repeated Measures ANOVA) was used in terms of demonstrating the relationship more clearly in repetitive measurements. In addition, the qualitative data obtained were analyzed through descriptive analysis. As a result of all these analyzes, the following results are seen: When the results of the academic achievement test and the attitude scale towards social studies applied to the experimental and control groups simultaneously were examined, there was a positive increase in the posttest achievement and posttest attitude scores of both groups, but it is seen that this increase is significantly higher in favor of the experimental group than the control group. Besides, it was determined that the positive change in achievements and attitudes occurred mostly in female students of the experimental group. In addition, as a result of the interviews conducted using semi-structured interview forms, it is concluded that the students and their parents generally liked the flipped classroom model and the application process, they had positive feelings and thoughts about the model in general, the model had positive effects on the students' attitudes towards the social studies lesson and most of the students want the model to be extended.