The Effect of Discussion Techniques in the Fifth-Grade Social Studies Curriculum of a Turkish Middle School

This research aims to determine the effectiveness of five discussion techniques (i.e., Debate, Panel, Collegium, Forum and Opposite Panel) on the learning progress in the fifth-grade social studies course. The pretest-posttest control group model, which is one of the real experimental models, was used in the research. The research participants consisted of 58 fifth-grade students studying at five secondary schools located in the centre of the Niğde province (Turkey) in the 2019-2020 spring term. Researchers prepared an achievement test for data collection: The Science, Technology and Society Academic Success Test, which was used in the research as a data collection tool. The statistical program (SPSS, Version 21) was used to analyse the data obtained from the study. The application period of the study lasted for four weeks in total, with three hours of teaching weekly in both groups. After the achievement test was applied to the students, the data was obtained and the application part of the study was terminated. As a result of the research, students taught with discussion techniques were more successful than those taught with conventional teaching activities stipulated by the current curriculum. Along with this result, it can be suggested that teaching based on discussion techniques should be often used in different classes and themes of social studies courses.