The Impact of Digital Storytelling on the Academic Achievement and Democratic Attitude of Primary School Students

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

The study examines how digital storytelling (DST) affects the academic achievement and democratic attitude of 4th-grade primary school students and documents learners’ experiences during the DST process. A mixed-method design combines a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental component with 30 students and two focus group interviews with 15 experimental-group students. Academic achievement test results and a democratic attitude scale are analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and qualitative content analysis. Findings show significant improvements in the experimental group, while interviews emphasize constructivist learning benefits and limited experience as a key challenge.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Abstract

Study Design and Methods

Results and Key Findings

Research Questions

The Impact of Digital Storytelling on the Academic Achievement and Democratic Attitude of Primary School Students1 Erdi ERDOĞAN2 Kırıkkale University Abstract The aim of this study is to explore the impact of digital storytelling (DST) on the academic achievement and democratic attitude of 4th-grade primary school students and to reveal their experiences in the DST process. The study was conducted with a mixed-method approach. The quantitative part of the study adopted a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design with 30 students. In the qualitative part of the study, two focus group interviews were carried out with 15 students in the experimental group. The quantitative data was collected through an academic achievement test and a democratic attitude scale. The qualitative data was obtained through two focus group interviews. Descriptive analysis, t-test, and qualitative content analysis were used for evaluating data. Results revealed that the students in the experimental group performed significantly better than the students in the control group in terms of academic achievement and democratic attitude. Focus group interviews highlighted that DST is effective in promoting constructivist learning and lack of experience is the biggest problem in the DST process Keywords: Digital Storytelling, Democratic Attitude, Academic Achievement, Primary School, Mixed Method Research. DOI: 10.29329/epasr.2020.334.22 1 This research was presented as an oral presentation at the 8th International Symposium on Social Studies Education, Turkey. 2Asst. Prof. Dr., Faculty of Education, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0002-3921-575X Correspondence: [erdierdogan90@hotmail.com](erdierdogan90@hotmail.com) Introduction In the 21st century, when technology is highly influential, students are expected to take on the role of "empowered learner" and "knowledge constructor" in the learning process (International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2016; Trilling & Fadel, 2009; Kırıkçı, Ciğerci, & Arıkan, 2020). To develop such student characteristics, student-centered instructional technologies are employed. One of the effective ways to achieve that is digital storytelling (DST) (Chan, 2019; Robin, 2008; Valkanova & Watts, 2007) . Several studies reveal that DST is effective in activating these learner characteristics. Because DST allows students to analyze, present, and communicate ideas about any type of content with the support of technology, it enables student engagement, cooperative learning, and creativity, makes students active learners, enhances learning, motivation, and academic achievement, and improves civic engagement (Sadik, 2008; Gyabak & Godina, 2011; Dogan & Robin, 2009; Erbaş, 2020; Ohler, 2006; Hung, Hwang & Huang, 2012; Yigit, 2020) . By creating digital stories, students connect with daily life and their learning process is shaped accordingly (Dreon, Kerper & Landis, 2011) . DST allows students to learn by themselves and provides permanent learning (Ohler, 2006). Besides, DST is useful in the educational process in uncovering the understandings of students via their thoughts and voices (Yuksel-Arslan, Yildirim & Robin, 2016) . With all these benefits, DST has a positive impact on learning as it allows the students to reflect on their experiences in the learning process. Although DST is a widely used instructional strategy, it remains a challenging issue to effectively apply this strategy to the teaching process. The problems that arise can be caused by the teacher, the student, and the structure of the course. For example, some teachers still have problems in including technology in the teaching process (Yang & Wu, 2012) . Moreover, the lack of experience of teachers and students regarding the DST process, limited duration of courses, incorrect technology choice (online or offline tools) in the DST process, boringness of story writing and storyboarding, and difficulty in finding m

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study?

The study aims to explore the impact of digital storytelling on academic achievement and democratic attitude of 4th-grade primary students, and to reveal students’ experiences in the DST process.

How was the study conducted?

It uses a mixed-method approach: a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design with 30 students and two focus group interviews with 15 students in the experimental group.

What were the main results?

Students in the experimental group achieved significantly higher results than the control group in both academic achievement and democratic attitude, and interviews indicated DST supports constructivist learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw