The effects of GIS on students' academic achievement and motivation in seventh-grade social studies lessons in Turkey

Abstract

This study sought to determine the effect of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on the academic achievement and motivation of seventh-grade students. The study used a quasi-experimental design and a set of social studies lessons. The study was conducted over the 2006–2007 academic year on the students of a primary school at Ankara, Turkey's capital city. The study included two groups – a treatment group with 21 students and a control group with 23 students. For the treatment group, a unit on the population of Turkey was given with GIS-based lesson materials. For the control group, the same subject matter was presented using traditional learning methods and traditional maps. At the end of the study, analysis of the data indicated that the academic achievement and motivation of students who used GIS were statistically higher than the achievement and motivation of the control group. The study concludes by offering suggestions based on the results of the research.

Keywords:

• academic achievement
• motivation
• geographic information systems
• social studies education
• education with geographic information systems

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank our teacher colleagues for allowing us access to their students and the students who applied the study and completed the questionnaires. And also I wish to thank Joseph Kerski, who assisted in the writing process.