The Predictive Effect of Digital Literacy, Self-Control and Motivation on the Academic Achievement in the Science, Technology and Society Learning Area

Science, Technology and Society (STS) is one of the learning areas that is stated in the Social Studies Course Curriculum. This learning area is included in all the class levels in which the social studies course is taught with the aim of providing various skills to the students. Even in the STS learning area of the fifth grade, it is stated that digital literacy and self-control are the skills intended to be gained by students. Considering this situation, in addition to the digital literacy and self-control skills, the predictive effects of the STS learning area on the academic achievements of students were investigated in the study. This study, in which the correlational survey method was employed, was carried out with 742 students in the fifth grade. The data were collected with ‘The Science, Technology and Society Learning Area Achievement Test’, The Digital Literacy Scale’, ‘The Self-control Scale for Children’, and ‘The Social Studies Course Motivation Scale’. Correlation and stepwise regression analysis were used in the data analysis. According to the research results, it was found that digital literacy, self-control and course motivation predict the academic achievements of the students in the STS learning area. It was also determined that the predictive effect of these variables on the academic achievement in the STS learning area was in the order of digital literacy, self-control and course motivation. In line with this result, it can be claimed that both skill building and motivation are effective in academic achievement. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.