The effect of digital storytelling on geometry performance: a study on students with special needs

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of geometry lessons taught through digital stories in the support education room of full-time inclusion/integration students studying at the secondary school level on student performances. In order to examine the effect of digital story teaching material on students' geometry performances, a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental model was applied. At the beginning of the research process, the "Geometry Performance Test" created by the researcher was administered to the students as a pretest in the form of a short-answer test. After eight weeks of lessons in the support education room, the same performance test was reapplied to the students as a post-test. The research group was formed by criterion sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods, and students with skills such as answering questions, reading and writing were included in the study while Individualized Education Plans (IEP) were being prepared within the scope of full-time inclusion/integration education. In this context, the study was conducted with a total of 15 students diagnosed with four speech and language disorders and 11 students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities. The data obtained during the research process were analyzed with dependent groups t-test. It was determined that the difference between the students' pre-test and post-test scores was statistically significant and showed a result in favor of the post-test. These findings show that the digital storytelling method positively affects the performance of students with special needs in geometry lessons. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended that the QR code application in the Ministry of National Education of Turkiye textbooks should also be provided for students with special needs and the content should include digital stories related to the subject.

Keywords

• Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
• Support Education Room
• Digital Story
• Geometry
• Inclusion
• Integration
• Math for special needs children

Ethical Statement

Necessary permissions were obtained in order to collect the data needed in the study. For this purpose, permission numbered 178547 and numbered 3 was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Science and Engineering Sciences within Kocaeli University. After the research was deemed appropriate, the necessary permission was obtained by applying to the Provincial Directorate of National Education in order to start the implementation process.

Thanks

We would like to thank all the students who participated in the entire research process with dedication and patience. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Also the authors contributed equally to this study and declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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