Authentic Social Studies Teaching: The Effect of Semantic Geo-media Material on Learning

The aim of this research is to produce a teaching material (Bilge Seyyah), which can be used in socialstudies course, and determine its effect on learning. Bilge Seyyah is a geo-media application, which iscreated with ADDIE instructional design model. The Bilge Seyyah was developed with newtechnologies such as the latest software languages and web 3.0. The Bilge Seyyah presented thecontents of the social studies course to students with authentic learning approach. It decided theauthentic - dynamic contents, tasks and maps itself that will be shown to the students. In order toprovide this, the geo-media was semantified. Afterwards, the effect of the Bilge Seyyah on learningwas tested. For this, quantitative data were obtained with quasi-experimental model. In this context, thecontrol (n=43) and experiment (n=41) groups were randomly determined among the sixth gradestudents in the fall term of 2015-2016 educational year. To determine the academic achievements andthe permanence in learnings of the students in the groups, the “Turks on the Silk Road Unit AcademicAchievement Test”, developed by the researchers, was applied as pre-and post-test on students in thegroups. The attitudes of the students towards social studies course were determined with “AttitudeScale towards Social Studies Lesson” scale. The data gathered from the scales were analysed via theindependent groups’t-test. The findings indicate that the academic achievements, permanence inlearning and attitudes towards social studies course of the students in experimental group were higherthan those in control group were. Considering the results of the study, recommendations were given toeducators.