DIFFERENTIATED SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION ACCORDING TO THE INTEGRATED CURRICULUM MODEL IN THE EDUCATION OF THE GIFTED STUDENTS

Abstract

It is not pedagogically appropriate to provide the developments of the gifted students with the curriculum prepared for the students in general or to expect them to have this gift. For this reason, it is necessary to differentiate the curriculum in accordance with the differences of the gifted students whose many skills such as cognitive, affective, psychomotor and learning speed are different from the other students in general. According to the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) put forward in this study, the primary school social studies instructional program is differentiated for the gifted students. The effect of this differentiated curriculum on the problem solving skills, self-regulation skills and academic achievements of the gifted students is examined. In the study employing quantitative research method pretest, posttest experimental and control group design is used. Experimental and control groups are comprised of 12 gifted students. As data collection tools, Self-Regulation Skills Test, Perception Scale for Problem Solving Skills and Academic Achievement test are used. In application, 4th grade social studies lesson units “All Together, People and Management, My Distant Friend” (Hep Birlikte, Insanlar ve Yonetim, Uzaktaki Arkadasim) are turned into a specific differentiated unit. The curriculum is applied to the experimental group participants in a period of six months in the academic years 2016-2017. For data analysis Mann-Whitney U test is used. As a result of the study, while there is a significant difference between the self-regulation skill and problem solving skill scores of the experimental and control group students in favor of the experimental group, there is not any significant difference in their academic achievement scores. Thus, the social studies education differentiated according to the integrated curriculum model has increased the scores of the self-regulation and problem solving skills of the gifted students. Article visualizations: