EFFECTIVENESS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING APPROACHES USED IN THE COURSE OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN TURKEY: A META-ANALYSIS STUDY

In Turkey, it is seen that there are a number of experimental studies conducted in relation to the course of Social Studies to reveal the influence of cooperative teaching approaches on achievement. However, in literature, there is no research combining the findings obtained in these studies. In this respect, with the help of the meta-analysis method, the present study aimed at revealing the influence of cooperative teaching approaches used in the course of Social Studies in Turkey on academic achievement. For this purpose, a total of 22 studies, 32 comparison were examined in line with the inclusion and exclusion criteria determined within the scope of the study. For the analysis of the research data, the software of Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) was used. In addition, regarding the analysis of the data, the treatment effectiveness meta-analysis was applied. In the study, in order to calculate the effect size, “Hedge’s g” was used. According to Thalheimer and Cook (2002), seven studies were found to have a large effect size. Six of the studies had a medium and perfect levels of effect size, while four of them had a very large effect size; three had a trivial effect size; and one had a low level of effect size. As a result of the research, the overall effect size was 0.959 according to the random effects model. The study was carried out by taking into account the study year, type of study, class level and sample size. Accordingly, only a significant difference in sample size has emerged. Consequently, when the meta-analysis results were examined in accordance with the random effects model, it could be stated that use of cooperative approaches in the course of Social Studies increased students’ academic achievement. Accordingly, in the study, related suggestions were put forward.