The Effectiveness of Integrating Philip Cam’s Brain Stories with Creative Drama Method on Moral Intelligence and Social Skills of Elementary School Students

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of combining Philip Cam intellectual stories with creative representation on the moral intelligence and social skills of elementary school students. A semi-experimental, socio-statistical design was employed with 30 sixth-grade students from Superior Mind School in Gorgan, Iran. Participants were divided into two groups (experimental and control) using convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Link and Keel Moral Intelligence Questionnaire (2011) and the Matson et al. Social Skills Questionnaire (1983). The experimental group received instruction on Flip-cam stories integrated with creative representation strategies for eight 45-minute sessions, while the control group received traditional instruction on Flip-cam stories. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multivariate analysis of covariance). The results demonstrated a significant positive effect of teaching Philip Cam stories with creative representation on the moral intelligence and social skills of elementary school students (p < 0.01). It is recommended that educators incorporate creative representation strategies when teaching stories in thinking and research lessons.
 
Keyboard:Philip Cam’s Brain Stories, Creative Drama, Moral Intelligence, Social Skills.
 
Introduction
One of the new educational approaches that can be combined with creative play is the Philosophy for Children program. In fact, the goal of Philosophy for Children is to produce children with independent thinking (Daniel, 2022). Philosophy has a positive effect on various abilities, including reasoning skills in children (Wu, 2021). One of the variables that it seems that the use of flip-cam stories can help improve is social skills. This is while in the present era, children and adolescents must develop social skills and moral intelligence in order to face the developments of the digital age with the aim of making favorable decisions and solving societal problems (Rostami et al., 2016, p. 11). On the other hand, various methods and approaches have been used to develop students' social skills (Aksuy and Baran, 2014), including the social skills training program (Erbay and Dagro, 2010); Creative Drama Activities (Kilicaslan & Asasglou, 2010); In fact, creative drama is a comprehensive approach that aims to activate students in the learning process, entertain them, and ultimately lead to deep and sustainable learning (Efilati et al., 2022). Now, the present study seeks to answer the question of whether teaching flip-cam intellectual stories by enriching the creative drama method has an effect on the moral intelligence and social skills of elementary school students?
Materials & methods
The present study is one of the applied studies that used a semi-experimental method with a pretest-posttest design with a control group (Non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design). The statistical population of this study included sixth-grade male students at Mengheher Primary School. Through the accessible and purposive sampling method, 30 male students were selected and replaced in two experimental groups (15 people) and control (15 people). The experimental group was exposed to the independent variable "performing flip-cam stories based on the creative display strategy" for 8 45-minute sessions. In the experimental group, in order to strengthen the moral intelligence and social skills of the students, multiple strategies were tried to be included in the implementation protocol, including warm-up activities, creative display strategy, question and answer, and philosophical exploration circle, and finally, summarization, homework, and evaluation. In the control group, the teacher performed flip-cam stories in the traditional way and reading by the teacher and students without the creative display strategy. In other words, in both groups, the stories were constant, but their execution strategy was different. To collect data, the moral intelligence questionnaire, Link and Keel (2011) and the Matson, Rotatori, and Hassel (1983) questionnaire were used to assess social skills.
Discussion & Result
A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was employed to examine the differences between the experimental and control groups regarding moral intelligence. Based on the results presented in Table 3, it can be concluded that after controlling for the pre-test, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the components of honesty and responsibility. Furthermore, according to the results of the univariate analysis of covariance, there were significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of the components of benevolence (F = 28.31, p < .001) and compassion (F = 26.05, p < .001).
 
Conclusion
The results of the first hypothesis showed that combining flip-cam story teaching with creative representation has an effect on the moral intelligence of elementary school students (p<0.0001 and F=3.12). The results of this hypothesis are consistent with the results of research by Yousefian-Aheri et al. (1401), Suleiman Pour-Omran (1400) in Iran and by Verley (2016), Kahrizeh et al. (2018), Boyraz and Turkan (2021) and Willis (2022) abroad. In explaining these results, it can be said that creative representation, due to its artistic approach, is attractive to students and combining it with a philosophy program for children can be effective in students' reasoning and moral intelligence. In this context, it should be said that the art aesthetics education program should be organized in such a way that, within the framework of the developed program, children benefit from seeing works of art with special pleasure and attraction and are motivated to create works of art, and their perception and attitude towards understanding and creating art and aesthetics are strengthened (Barghi, 2021). Also, the results of the second hypothesis showed that combining flip-cam story teaching with the creative demonstration method has an effect on the social skills of elementary school students (p<0.0001 and F=3.12). In explaining this finding, it can be said that the use of demonstration-based methods increases students' motivation towards the lesson (Tukdemir, 2015). This method creates opportunities for the development of skills such as communication skills, mutual understanding, cooperation and group participation, respect and mutual trust (Göktürk, Çalışkan, & Öztürk, 2020). Guriyai (2014) showed that creative play can be effective and help increase students' motivation and creativity. Creative play has a positive effect on preschool children's memory by creating an integrated learning environment. Therefore, it is suggested that the integration of creative play methods, including improvisation, role-playing, puppetry, and shadow play, be used in the elementary school curriculum. Given the significance of this method in education, it is suggested that empowerment courses be held for teachers to familiarize themselves with various creative play methods.