AN EVALUATION OF THE CREATIVE DRAMA METHOD USED IN THIRD- AND FOURTH- GRADE CLASSES ON ENVIRONMENTAL TOPICS BY TEACHING METHOD AND TEACHER EFFECT

Abstract

This study deals with the effects of applying drama method in the teaching of environmental issues in science courses on the achievement, retention of learning, student interest and attitudes of primary school students and also whether these effects are dependent on teachers. The study was designed on the basis of the Solomon Four-Group Design. The study is a two group pre- and post-test experiment in two parts, each part having an experimental and control group. The courses were delivered to both groups by the researcher in the first part and drama teacher in the second. The experimental groups received 144 hours of teaching for six weeks, during which a drama course outline was employed, while in the control groups the courses followed the course outlines covered in the curricula. The data were collected using the Environmental Achievement Test, Interest Scale towards the Environment and Attitude Scale towards Science. The findings suggest that the teachers had some effects on the methods, but the significant differences in scores were due to the drama method, which was found to improve the achievement of the third-grade students and the interest towards environment and attitudes towards science of both third- and fourth-grade students. Keywords: environmental education, creative drama method, science education, teacher effect