The Effect of Using the 4MAT Teaching Method in 6th-Grade Social Studies Education on the Academic Achievement of Students

The goal of this research is to reveal out the effect of the activities prepared based on the 4MAT teaching method on the academic achievement of the students, with respect to the unit, "The Journey of Democracy", included in social studies curriculum for 6th-graders. In accordance with this goal, the research was conducted using the Solomon four-group experimental model. The study group of the research consisted of 80 sixth graders studying, in the 2017-2018 academic year, at a public secondary school in Merkezefendi district of Denizli province located in the west of Turkey. The research was conducted in a total of four different classes each of which consisted of 20 students. Classes 6/A and 6/C made up the experiment group whereas classes 6/B and 6/D made up the control group. An achievement test developed by the researcher, consisting of 25 questions, with a KR20 value of .80, was used as the mean of data collection. Four options were offered for each question included in the achievement test and the students were asked to mark the option they deemed to be true. In the analysis of the data, frequency, arithmetic mean, percent, standard deviation; and t-test and covariance (ANCOVA) tests among the difference tests, were used. At the end of the research, it was concluded that the 4MAT teaching method was more effective than the existing teaching method in improving the academic achievement of the students with respect to the unit 'The Journey of Democracy".