THE EFFECT OF CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING PRINCIPLES BASED LEARNING MATERIALS TO STUDENTS ATTITUDES, SUCCESS AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES

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1 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 THE EFFECT OF CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING PRINCIPLES BASED LEARNING MATERIALS TO STUDENTS ATTITUDES, SUCCESS AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES Hıdır Karaduman and Dr. Mehmet Gültekin Anadolu University Faculty o Education hidirk@anadolu.edu.tr mgulteki@anadolu.edu.tr ABSTRACT The present study aims to investigate whether the learning materials that based on constructivist learning principles have an eect on ith grade Social Studies students attitudes, their academic success and their retention. The study was conducted at Şehit Ali Gaar Okkan Elementary School, Eskişehir. The participants o the study were 5th grade students in Şehit Ali Gaar Okkan Elementary School. The data was collected in all term in academic year. Participants were divided into two groups: the control group (5B) and the experimental group (5C). In the present study, the ollowing data collection instruments were used: a questionnaire or demographic inormation, pre and posttests and openended essaytype tests that were used to measure learners academic success and retention level, lesson plans, various teaching materials or classroom activities, and a questionnaire to gather the learners perspectives. Social Studies Attitude Scale, developed by Deveci and Güven (2002), was used to determine students attitudes. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS program. The means and standard deviations were calculated or each group. The data were subjected to t tests or inter and between group comparisons. The signiicance level was taken as.05. Findings o research indicate that constructivist learning principles based learning materials increase students academic success and retention in Social Studies but don t increase attitudes. Additionally students think that constructivist learning principles based learning materials relect constructivist learning principles. Key words: Social Studies, Constructivist Theory, Teaching Material INTRODUCTION The education process is ensured by ormal and inormal education and elementary education is the most undamental step o the ormal education in a country. Elementary education, which prepares the 6 to4 yearold children to the lie and to ollowing education through enabling them to gain basic knowledge and skills, is the milestone o the education system. In this period, basic knowledge, skills and values are given to the pupils in order to make them live harmoniously with other individuals in the society and enable them to adopt the lie conditions (Fidan and Erden 99). The elementary education is the undamental educational step that the child meets the regular education acts or the irst time. It is also a period, in which the students experience their most critic terms, namely growing period, and it is the basement o their orthcoming educational lives. It is commonly believed that the way o training an individual in a god manner needs a high quality education (Gürkan and Gökce; 999). In elementary education, enabling students to gain the necessary behaviors is mainly supplied by education programs that are designed and practiced beorehand. In elementary education programs there are various courses, which called central lessons, and expression courses as well as skill courses. Social Science course is one o those central lessons in the elementary school education. A common deinition o the social science course which is accepted by all the people in the ield is diicult to describe (Öztürk and Otluoglu; 2003). However, social science course can be deined as a lesson which gives the learners some the basic cultural elements through indings o various studies and some cumulative knowledge that obtained through interdisciplinary studies. Furthermore, it can be deined as a course which combines the necessary knowledge with reerence to global understanding o a young learner (Sözer, 99). As it is igured in the Chart below, the social science course is also unctions as an umbrella which interconnects other disciplines in the elementary education. It is the title o an MA thesis which is supervised by Dr. Mehmet Gültekin in the Institute o Educational Sciences o Anadolu University 9

2 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 Chart. Social Studies Umbrella The social science course ensures students to become well socialized and excellent citizens through enabling them to gain important social skills. Societies bring up their people, who are robust or their own social structures, through social science courses (Deveci, 2003). Thereore, the social science education has a signiicant and diagnostic role in practical education which based on modern science, human rights, reedom, democracy, secularity and cultural heritage o national and international sources (TED; 9). Regarding the act, students should be educated on various attitudes, personal characteristics, values o the societies and model behaviors through social science courses to encourage them participating to the society eectively (Kaltsounis; 9) The main objective o the educational institutions is to help bringing up the individuals as eective and productive citizens, and enable the young learners live happily by realizing their own capacities. In act, this basic unction explains what the objective o social science course is and why it takes place in the elementary education programs. Additionally, another undamental goal o the social science course is to educate eective and responsible citizens through developing their knowledge acquisition sources and decision making abilities in the global world (NCSS; 994). In a global sense, social science courses are regarded as preparatory phase or the citizenship in democracy (Barr, Barth and Shermis;9). Thereore, the duties o teachers in social science courses o the twentieth century become more complicated and new goals or the social science courses in elementary education are emerged depending on this act. One o those new goals o the social science courses in elementary schools is to guide the learners to develop a broad understanding or the political and economical developments as well as developing general world knowledge about the environment they live. Another key goal o social science course is to develop critical and intellectual thinking abilities o the students which enable them to ully participate to the society eectively. Furthermore, the social science courses aim at guiding the students to associate their classroom experiences with those o real world experiences through the perspectives and mind activities that they gained in the classroom (Grant ve Vansledrigt, 996). The traditional notion o social science teaching, which intends to make individuals to gain a social identity, depends on a teacher centered instruction, which grounds the belie that the best teaching occurs in a quite teaching environment, where the teacher desk symbolizes the wisdom and the authority. Such a teaching notion abstracts the teacher rom the classroom, uses the course book as the only teaching material and requires the learners to study on their own. Thereore, teaching o abstract things takes more places in the social science teaching procedures. Accordingly, narration and questionanswer approaches play a igurative role in this traditional notion. As a result, the learning becomes through memorization (Yanpar 200:466). As Teague (2000) states, actually, the acts and the terms o social science is taught through traditional teacher centered teaching activities which emphasize memorization. However, when the objectives o social science courses, characteristics o the subjects and basic principles o social science teaching taken into consideration, it can be easily observed that the traditional teaching approaches are inadequate and needs to be enlarged (Alkan and Kurt, 99: 94). Though the limitations o the traditional teaching, nowadays some skills such as updating, practicing, criticizing, and analyzing the knowledge gain importance. The constructivist theory which plays an important role in the ield o education recently, arouses the interests o the experts in the ield o social science teaching in terms o designing a curriculum which enables the students to learn through practicing, problem solving and decision 99

3 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 making activities. Reormation o the components o social science curriculum in a way that enables learners to transer their previous knowledge into intellectual skills such as problemsolving and decision making (Fontana, 996:5), might provide a teaching environment which orces the limits o the traditional teaching notion and causes reormulation o deinition o the eective missions o social science courses. Regarding the act, the constructivist theory that take or granted that the whole learning take place in the minds o the learners as a result o constructions (Yaşar, 99:3), seems one o the proper teaching approaches which provides a meaningul and strong teaching and learning process in social science courses. Especially, some o the goals o the social science course go with the constructivist learning principles which emphasize emotional and physical involvement eectively. Sunal and Haas (2002) summarized them as ollows: Understanding the terms (such as alteration and continuity) Understanding the generalizations (the variations in a society and their associations) To develop high level thinking skills (to develop social science related skills such as classiication o dierent political events, critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving) To develop attitudes and views in relation with the social world (or example; not to judge something without detailed and adequate evidence) Thereore, the social science teachers should encourage their students to employ their high level thinking skills, to cooperate with other students, to construct their own knowledge about the social science terms, and to establish associations between the subjects that they have learned in their courses and their personal experiences (Rice and Wilson, 999:32). It is because; meaningul social science learning includes an eective construction process. As it is presented in chart 2 below, in a meaningul social science course, the students construct their own knowledge, skills and attitudes with regard to their ormer experiences (Sunal and Haas, 2002: 23). Chart 2. The constructivist learning process in social science course Source: Adapted rom Sunal and Haas (2002; 24) According to Sunal and Haas (2002; ) the classroom environment or meaningul learning in social science courses can be obtained through joining the principles o constructivist learning with the roles o instructors and 00

4 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 learners. Since, the main assumption o the constructivism supposes that the students learning occurs when the new knowledge is presented in relation to the ormer knowledge within an eective teaching environment, where the new knowledge is practiced through experiences. In such an environment, the learner brings his/her social lie experiences to the classroom, gathers evidence, establishes associations between his/her experiences, able to see his/her newly gained knowledge, skills and experiences rom another perspective and able to join his/her experiences with his/her lie. Additionally, the learners in such an environment eel conident and enrich their learning with adequate materials and experiences. Especially the constructivist learning environment, where constructing the meaning is the basis or learners (Tezci and Gürol, 200), should be designed as an environment where the learners are able to interact with their environment and convey their rich learning into their learning environment. Thereore, teachers in the constructivist learning environment should support their teaching with some interactive teaching materials (Demirel, 200; 34). The teaching materials, which might enable constructing the meaning, are also strength the teachinglearning process and ease the learners understanding as well (NCSS, 994b). The aim o constructivist learning is not to predetermine what the learners will do, but provide opportunities that shape the learners own learning through rich teaching materials which make the knowledge meaningul and useul (Erdem and Demirel, 2002; ). While stating their opinions, the learners use various sources such as where they might gather the data about the problem (interviews, ield trips, etc.) and where they might show the gathered data (cartoons, graphics, photographs, exhibition, telescope, drama, play, scenario, etc.) (Cunningham, 992). Every source where the inormation is gained provides new opinions about the problems. Thereore, earlier than using the teaching materials, it is crucial to design them with regard to the principles o constructivist learning. Application o materials that based on constructivist principles to Social Science courses will provide contributions to the meaningul learning o the learners as well as to the arrangement o eective teachinglearning process. Here, the question what should be the proper teaching material that based on constructivist principles? comes to mind. When the literature in the ield o constructivism is reviewed, it is ound that the undamental principles o constructivism and the way o adapting them into teaching materials are deined clearly. Regarding the deinitions in the literature (Aydın, 2002; Brooks and Brooks, 993; Özden, 2003; Tezci and Gürol, 200; Yaşar and Gültekin, 2002; Olsen, 999; Deryakulu, 2000; Şen, 2002; Marlowe and Page, 99), the material that is proper to constructivist teaching principles should have the ollowing qualities; The teaching materials that based on constructivist principles should; enable learners to explore new knowledge through setting connections with their previous knowledge, enable learners to igure out their opinions beore they achieve the new inormation, should eed the curiosity o the learners through learning cycle model (discovery, deinition and application) should cover some key terms such as deine, classiy, guess, construct that guide students progress in the learning process. should support multiple opinions and courage students to declare their opinions should provide associations with real lie experiences through examples should support learner autonomy should support an interactive relation with other students as well as teacher should guide the learners or search the sources such as encyclopedias and web pages through open ended and curiosity awakening questions should cover the answers o questions such as how to learn and what to learn should guide students to the primary sources should involve learning strategies such as problem based learning, case studies, project based learning and collaborative learning. It can be claimed that in order to establish a meaningul and permanent learning in the Social Science courses, the learning environments should be enriched through teaching materials that encourage and guide the learners to think critically, to solve problems, to study collaboratively and that enable the learners to establish their own learning strategies. Seeking to relect the innovations and developments in the world to the curriculums o national education in Turkiye, Ministry o National Education ramed the Social Science curriculum o within the ramework o above considerations. Thereore, orthcoming scientiic studies should inquiry the eectiveness o the teaching materials o social science courses that based on constructivist principles and utilization o those developed materials by the social science teachers. 0

5 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 Regarding the act, the presents study is conducted to examine the role o teaching materials, which are based on the principles o constructivist learning, on the learners attitudes toward courses, on learner achievement and on retention levels o the students. The present study might be considered as a signiicant study in its ield, because; it depicts that constructivist learning principles are applicable to the teaching materials, it igures out whether the utilization o materials that based on constructivist learning principles have any contribution to the eectiveness o Social science courses or not, and it provides contributions to the new Social science curriculum that developed by the Ministry o National Education with regard to the constructivist learning principles. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The main goal o the present study is to igure out the eectiveness o teaching materials, which were based on the principles o constructivist learning, with regard to the learners attitudes toward the social science courses, learner achievement and retention levels o the learners. Concerning the above aim, ollowing research questions are posed;. Is there any signiicant dierence between the learner attitudes o the learners in the experimental group, which used teaching materials that designed regarding the principles o constructivist learning, and control group, which used traditional teaching materials in their social science courses? 2. Is there any signiicant dierence between the academic achievements o the learners in the experimental group, which used teaching materials that designed regarding the principles o constructivist learning, and control group, which used traditional teaching materials in their social science courses? 3. Is there any signiicant dierence between the retention levels o the learners in the experimental group, which used teaching materials that designed regarding the principles o constructivist learning, and control group, which used traditional teaching materials in their social science courses? 4. What are the viewpoints o the learners in the experimental group on the utilization o the teaching materials that designed with regard to the constructivist learning principles? METHOD The Research Model The present study is designed as a controlgrouped (Karasar 99) experimental research model with pretest and posttest in order to examine the role o teaching materials, which were based on the principles o constructivist learning, on the learners attitudes toward courses, learner achievement and their retention levels. Two groups were objectively identiied as experimental and control groups, and the learners in both groups were examined through pre and post tests. Additionally, a questionnaire, which inquires the perspectives o the learners on the use o teaching materials that are based on constructivist learning principles, is used in order igure out the learner preerences. Participants The participants o the study were 5th grade students in Şehit Ali Gaar Okkan Elementary School in Eskişehir. The data was collected in all term o academic year. Participants were divided into two groups: the control group (5B) and the experimental group (5C). The deinition o the groups as experimental and control was based on evenhanded principles and they were labeled through drawing o lots. There are 36 students in each o the groups. The reasons behind selecting the Şehit Ali Gaar Okkan Elementary School as the scope o the research are the willingness o the teachers and school administration to participate and collaborate to this study, their interest and readiness to contribute scientiic studies, and the school s technological equipments with its prosperous library. Equalization Since the present research is an experimental study the participants in both groups, namely the members o experiment and control groups, were attempted to equalize in terms o some eatures. Regarding the equalization process, the achievement test scores, learner s attitude scores towards Social science course and participants demographic data were used in order to orm equal groups. The achievement test is used as pretest which examines the success o the participants, and its results show that the participants in both groups received similar scores. That is, there is not any signiicant dierence between the experiment and control groups in terms o their success prior to the study. The participants in each group were paired regarding the inormation that they provide through demographic inormation questionnaire. I a participant does not have any partner with similar demographic inormation s/he 02

6 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 is eliminated and dropped rom the groups. Accordingly, 20 students out o 36 in each group were selected as pairs, and on account o the equalization process total 40 students orm the participants o the study. The demographic backgrounds o the equalized participants are summarized in table below. Features Table. Demographic backgrounds o the participants Experiment Group Control Group N Frequency N Frequency Gender Female Male Average income o parents per month 200 billion and less billion billion billion billion milliard milliard and over Educational background outside the school Learners who get private courses Learners who do not get private courses Report card grades As it is depicted in table, the participants in both groups are equal in terms o their gender, their educational backgrounds outside the school, and report card grades o 4 th grade. They also show similarities in terms o average monthly income o their parents. Thereore, it can be claimed that the participants in both groups are equal in terms o their demographic backgrounds. Although it is attempted to equalize the participants in terms o their attitudes, it is observed that there are not enough pairs in terms o their attitudes though they are equal in other aspects o the equalization. Thereore, the participants pretest scores o attitudes towards social science course, which depict no signiicant dierence among the participants, will be regarded as equalization standard or their attitudes. I there would be any signiicant dierence in pretest attitude scores o the participants, then, the data would be statistically analyzed through covariance analysis at the end o the experiment. Data and data gathering process In terms o the theoretical background o the study, a variety o literature either in Turkish or in other contexts are reviewed. Furthermore, in order to answer the research questions o the present study several data gathering instruments are utilized. For instance, a questionnaire orm is developed by the researcher in order to gather the demographic inormation about the participants. The participants responds to the questionnaire are used to equalize the groups and to orm pairs. Additionally, an achievement test, which is developed by the researcher, is employed to examine the academic successes o the participants at the beginning o the experiment; the same test is reused to examine retention levels o the participants at the end o the experiment. Furthermore, several lesson plans and teaching materials are designed by the researcher so as to ollow the social science courses in connection with the principles o constructivist learning principles and in connection with the teaching materials that planned accordingly. Another questionnaire which inquires the opinions o the participants about the teaching materials that used in the courses is developed by the researcher. Consequently, the social science course attitude scale which was developed by Deveci and Güven (2002) is utilized in order to igure out the participants attitudes towards social science courses. 03

7 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 Demographic inormation questionnaire This questionnaire orm, which is designed or equalization and pairing process o the participants, consists o 6 questions. The questionnaire is reormed and developed through the contributions and opinions o the experts in the ield. Achievement tests which are employed to assess the success and retention levels o the participants Two interrelated but dierent assessment instruments are employed to examine the achievement and retention levels o the students. Both o the assessment tools grounded their question rom the unit named How did we achieve the Republic. The irst tool consists o a ouritemed 40 multiple choice questions and the second tool consists o open ended essay questions. In order to establish content validity o the multiple choice achievement test, a special attention is paid on the questions as to cover and exempliy the content o the unit (Tekin, 2000). The questions and their items are also evaluated by 0 assessment experts and 5 social science teachers in terms o their content validity. The inal version o the multiple choice achievement test is ormed with reerence to the evaluations o the experts. Prior to administrating the achievement test to the control and experimental groups it is administered to a sample group, which has similar characteristics with the participants o the study in order to judge the reliability o the achievement test. The test divided into two sections and the reliability score o the test is calculated through using Spearman Brown s ormula as cited in Tekin s (2000) study. The result o the reliability estimation depicts that the reliability coeiciency score o the multiple choice achievement test that based on the unit How did we achieve the Republic is., and this score airms the reliability o the achievement test. Since the evaluation process with reerence to constructivist learning principles is not solely based on a timed tests and assumed as the relection o the learning o the learners, additional achievement measurement tool is utilized in the present research. In terms o evaluation procedures, the constructivist learning principles challenge the traditional evaluation procedures and employ authentic evaluation techniques. Thereore, in addition to the multiple choice achievement test, the researcher developed a 0 questioned essay type achievement test with regard to the constructivist learning principles. This 0 questioned achievement test is reviewed by the constructivist learning proessionals and 2 questions are eliminated through their recommendations. The grading o this essay type achievement test is handled by two independent raters and the mean scores o raters are assumed as the achievement grades o the participants. As the inal step o the achievement evaluation procedure, the participants grades in multiple choice and essay type exams cumulated and then their average is obtained as the achievement scores o the participants. The questionnaire which inquires the perceptions o the participants about the constructivist learning principles based teaching materials that used in the Social science courses A treepoint likert type questionnaire is developed by the researcher in order to obtain the perceptions o the participants about the teaching material, which was designed concerning constructivist learning principles, or social science courses. The items in the questionnaire are developed as to relect the perceptions o the participants about the teaching material which was intended to involve the constructivist learning elements. The teaching material which was designed concerning constructivist learning principles The irst step in the constructivist learning principles based teaching material design is to deine the general and behavioral objectives o the subject that is How did we achieve the Republic which is a unit in the syllabus o 5 th grade Social science courses. Subsequently, lesson plans are prepared with reerence to the general and behavioral objectives o the unit. Finally, a teaching material, which is involving the constructivist learning elements, is developed. In terms o selecting the unit two important criteria, which are ease in explanation and ease in making the unit meaningul to the learners, are regarded as main concerns. Accordingly, one o the units in the syllabus o 5 th grades, namely How did we achieve the Republic which is generally based on historical acts and inormation, was selected as the course subject or the study. The literature in Turkish contexts and other contexts is reviewed in order to design teaching material which is proper or the principles o constructivist learning principles. Accordingly, a check list or the constructivist learning principles based teaching materials is developed. Finally, the course content is prepared as worksheets regarding the check list and objectives o the unit How did we achieve the Republic. 04

8 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 While preparing the worksheets, a special attention was paid to their appropriateness to the constructivist learning principles, their aptness to the objectives o the unit, their relevance to the levels o the students and their being interactive. Thereore, the teaching material is designed as colorul and conspicuous and it is ornamented with various photographs, maps and caricatures. Furthermore, some gap illing activities are added to the worksheets in order to make students write down some notes on them. Potential sources that the learners might reer are listed on the worksheets, and some blanks are provided or students to add their own sources beneath the given source list. Students were also guided through some signs on the worksheets or the activities that they should accomplish. The worksheets compiled as small booklets and ten dierent experts are requested to review the worksheets or their relevance to the principles o constructivist learning. Aterwards, the worksheets were reorganized with reerence to the reviews o the experts. Subsequently, the same experts were requested again to assess the relevance o the teaching material by using the the constructivist learning principles based teaching materials check list. Only out o ten experts have returned their inal review. The ratings o the experts or the relevance o the teaching material by using the the constructivist learning principles based teaching materials check list is summarized in table 2 below. Table. 2. The views o experts on the teaching material that designed with regard to constructivist learning principles Check list or constructivist based teaching material. It enables the learners to discover the new inormation through associating ormer knowledge. 2. It helps to conirm the learners opinions on the subject prior to get inormation about it. 3. It enables students to use the learning cycle model (discovery, deinition and application) which eed the natural curiosity o the learners. 4. It covers some key terms such as compare, deine, classiy, guess, construct that guide students progress in the learning process. 5. It covers case studies and problems that enable the students to look rom dierent dimensions. 6. It supports multiple opinions and courage students to declare their opinions. It provides associations with real lie experiences through examples. It supports learner autonomy 9. It supports an interactive relation with other students as well as teacher 0. It guides the learners or search the sources such as encyclopedias and web pages through open ended and curiosity awakening questions. It covers the answers o questions such as how to learn and what to learn 2. It directs students to the primary sources suicient acceptable insuicient X

9 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 3. It involves learning strategies such as problem based learning, case studies, project based learning and collaborative learning Mean 2.92 The mean score o the views o experts on the teaching material that designed with regard to constructivist learning principles is 2.92 over 3. Regarding this mean score, it can be claimed that the experts, who were asked or their evaluations o the teaching materials, believe that the teaching materials that designed with reerence to constructivist learning principles are wellmatched with the deined constructivist learning principles. Experimental Process Ater preparing data collection instruments and obtaining permission rom the relevant authority the test and control groups were determined through unbiased selection. In the test group lessons were perormed by the researcher. The researcher had attended various conerences and had taken various courses on constructivism during postgraduate studies. Thereore it is assumed that the researcher is knowledgeable on constructivism. Ater determining test and control groups, students in both groups were told that a research to determine the eect o teaching material designed in accordance to constructivist learning principles on students attitudes towards the course, success and retention levels in Social Studies course was planned and that they were selected as subjects o this study. Later, both groups were given achievement test developed by the researcher or course unit titled How did we achieve the Republic and the attitude test developed by Deveci and Güven (2002) as pretest. Ater explaining the characteristics o the research to students and teacher in detail a six hour teaching practice per week which was lasting six weeks was initiated. This teaching practice took place between November 2004 and 0 December Teaching practice using material prepared in accordance with constructivist learning principles was perormed in the ollowing manner: The material developed by the researcher was distributed to the students prior to the practice in the orm o a booklet and the students were asked to review the booklet. Resources to be used by the students during the practice period were brought into the classroom or let at the school library. Some o the lessons were undertaken at the school library or the computer laboratory. Instruction or the test group was undertaken in accordance to the previously prepared instruction set. Accordingly the researcher undertook the lessons in line with the activities indicated in the previously distributed material ater stating the objectives and topics o the lessons. Activities aimed at discovering what the students know and want to know were given priority in the material and these were shared with the class. Later other activities that mentioned in the material and which were relevant to the topic were undertaken. These activities were carried out in the groups that were previously established. Ater each group completed their work, a class discussion on the group work was undertaken and relationships with the current period were established. In this manner students were given the opportunity to voice their own views. Exercises varied according to topics. Some o the students were asked to classiy, guess, determine dierences and similarities, compare or analyze while at other instances students were asked to examine cartoons, photographs or documents in the distributed materials and indicate their opinions in the blanks provided in the material. Students were also asked to provide solutions to problem cases and case samples provided in the material by the researcher. During a portion o the unit students were directed to perorm project work. Projects developed by groups were composed o drama, newspaper, contest, powerpoint presentation and poster. In perorming their project exercise students utilized various resources and technologies. Also poems and drawings created by students were included in projects. Projects prepared by students were evaluated by students and presented in the classroom bulletin board. Students in the test group participated in the learning process in an eective manner, played eective roles in group exercises and other activities. Whenever conronted with a problem the students attempted to solve the problem through cooperation and when unable to overcome the problem sought the help o the researcher. Whether the implementation o teaching material prepared in accord with constructivist principles was conorming to the guidelines was observed by another researcher. Evaluation o observation orm reports indicated that the implementation was in conormance to the set criteria. In the control group a traditional teacher

10 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 oriented teaching method consisting o reading relevant topics rom a Social Studies textbook, class presentation o the topic and listening to instructors explanations on the topic was employed. Social Studies course instruction or the test group was perormed through teaching material prepared according to constructivist learning principles while instruction or the control group was perormed through traditional teaching. Ater completion o activities or the unit in six weeks an achievement test or the unit titled How did we achieve the Republic and a Social Studies course attitude test was applied as a retest. Twenty days ater this retesting the success test was perormed again to measure the students retention levels. Data Analysis and Interpretation The data collected through instruments used in the study were controlled and data obtained rom this control was entered into a computer. Ater pretest and retest scores o the test and control groups were determined the score averages o the groups and standard deviations o score distributions were calculated. The ttest was used or intergroup comparisons and a 0.05 conidence interval was determined. Data about students opinions about teaching material prepared according to constructivist principles was grouped as ollows; averages between were labeled no, averages between were labeled partially and averages between were labeled as yes and were interpreted accordingly. SPSS (Statistical Package or the Social Sciences) sotware was used or statistical analysis o the research data. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS In this section, indings o statistical analysis o the collected data and discussions o these indings are presented. In presentation o indings and discussions the same order as that o the objectives o the study is used or internal consistency.. To answer the question Is there any signiicant dierence between the learner attitudes o the learners in the experimental group, which used teaching materials that designed regarding the principles o constructivist learning, and control group, which used traditional teaching materials in their social science courses? arithmetic averages and standard deviations o attitude measure scores were calculated and the dierence between the averages o each group was tested through ttests. Findings or the pretest scores o test and control groups scores or attitude measure towards Social Studies course is presented in Table 3. Table 3. Findings on Pretest Scores o experiment and Control Groups Scores on Attitude Measure towards Social Studies Course Student Groups Sample Size (N) Arithmetic Mean ( X ) Standard Deviation (SD) t Value Degree o Freedom (D) Level o Importance (P) Experiment Group Control Group t Table = > 0.05 As can be seen in Table 3 there is a.05 point dierence between the pretest scores o test group and control group students attitude measures towards Social Studies course in the control groups avor. To test the meaningulness o this dierence ttest was perormed on the group averages and a t=0.39 was determined. This is below the 2.02 lever which corresponds to the t value or a degree o reedom o 3 at 0.05 importance level. This shows that the dierence between the arithmetic averages o the two groups is statistically insigniicant. This can be summarized as that there is no signiicant dierence between the attitudes o the students in the test and control groups towards Social Studies course prior to the experiment. Later, to determine the eectiveness o the experiment, the existence o a meaningul dierence in the retest mean scores o the test and control group was investigated. Findings o the retest scores o the test and control group on the attitude measure towards Social Studies course are presented in Table 4. 0

11 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 Table 4. Findings on Retest Scores o Experiment and Control Groups Scores on Attitude Measure towards Social Studies Course Student Groups Sample Size (N) Arithmetic Mean ( X ) Standard Deviation (SD) t Value Degree o Freedom (D) Level o Importance (P) Experiment Group Control Group t Table = > 0.05 As we can observe rom Table 4, the test group students scored 5.4 points higher than the control group in the retest. A t test was applied to ind i this dierence was meaningul and a t value o.9 was obtained, which is below the t=2.02 reerence value, meaning that there is no statistically signiicant dierence between the arithmetic averages o the two groups. According to the scores on the attitude measure towards Social Studies applied at the end o the experiment there is no meaningul dierence in the attitudes o the test and the control groups. This result shows that the teaching techniques employed in the test and control groups have no dierent eects in aecting the students attitudes towards Social Studies course. These results can be thought o as conirming the view that attitudes develop in lie and there is no quick way to change them. 2. To answer the question Is there a dierence in terms o academic success between test group students using teaching materials prepared according to constructivist learning principles and control group students where traditional teaching was used? a multiple choice achievement test was used as a pretest to measure the success o test and control group students. Arithmetic means and standard deviations o students scores on this test were calculated and the dierences between the score was tested using t test. The scores achieved by the experiment and control groups on the achievement pretest are shown on Table 5. Tablo 5. Findings on the Experiment and Control Groups Scores on the Multiple Choice Pretest Achievement Test Student Groups Sample Size (N) Arithmetic Mean ( X ) Standard Deviation (SD) t Value Degree o Freedom (D) Level o Importance (P) Experiment Group Control Group t Table = > 0.05 As it can be seen rom Table 5 there is a 0.0 point dierence between the pretest scores o the experiment and control group students in avor o the test group. T test was perormed on the arithmetic means o group s scores to test i this dierence is meaningul and a t=0.033 value was obtained. This is less than the standard t score o 2.02 and this shows that the dierence between the mean scores o the groups is statistically insigniicant. There is no signiicant dierence between the achievement levels o the students in the test and control groups in Social Studies prior to the experiment. Later, to test the eectiveness o the experiment the existence o a meaningul dierence between the mean scores o the groups on the posttest composed o multiple choice items and essays were examined. Findings about the posttest scores o the test and control groups are presented in Table 6. 0

12 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 Table 6. Findings on the Posttest Scores o the Experiment and Control Groups Student Groups Sample Arithmetic Standard Degree o Size (N) Mean ( X ) Deviation (SD) t Value Freedom (D) Level o Importance (P) Experiment Group Control Group t Table = > 0.05 According to the indings in Table 6, there is a 2.5 point dierence between the posttest scores o the test and control group students in the test group s avor. The meaningulness o this dierence was tested through t testing and a t value o t=3.25, which is larger than the standard t value o t=2.02. According to this result there is a statistically signiicant dierence between the posttest scores o the groups in the test group s avor. Posttest results rom the achievement tests show that the teaching methods employed or test and control groups have dierent levels o eectiveness. This study shows that in Social Studies course, learning environments where teaching materials prepared in accordance to constructivist learning principles are used is more eective than traditional teaching. This inding o the present study is parallel with indings o Soeharto (99), Lord (999), Abboutt, Jeery and Duane (2003) and Turgut (200) where research in dierent course subjects showed that constructivist theory increased student success. 3. To answer the question Is there a dierence between the retention levels o test group students where material prepared in accordance to constructivist learning principles are used and control group students where traditional teaching is used? 20 days ater the posttest implementation the multiple choice item and essay achievement tests were implemented again and the arithmetic means and standard deviations o students scores were calculated and the dierence between means was tested by t testing. Findings about the scores o students in the achievement test implemented to determine retention levels are given in Table. Table. Findings about the Scores o Students in the Achievement Test Used to Measure Retention Student Groups Sample Size (N) Arithmetic Mean ( X ) Standard Deviation (SD) t Value Degree o Freedom (D) Level o Importance (P) Experiment Group Control Group t Table = > 0.05 As seen in Table there is a 0.35 point dierence in the test groups avor as ar as the groups mean scores or the retention test is concerned. To test the meaningulness o this dierences t test was perormed on the groups mean scores and a t=2.25 value was obtained. This is higher than the standard t value o t=2.02 and means that the dierence in the retention levels o the groups is statistically signiicant. Retention level results obtained rom the achievement test shows that the teaching methods employed towards the test and control groups gave dierent levels o eectiveness. This study demonstrates that in increasing the retention levels o students in Social Studies courses learning environments where material prepared in accord to constructivist learning principles are more eective than traditional teaching methods. This inding is consistent with Koç s (2002) indings. Koç (2002) ound signiicant dierences between the retention levels o constructivist and traditional classes in avor o the constructivists in his research on university students. 4. In the ourth part o the study the question What are the opinions o students regarding teaching material in Social Studies courses where teaching material prepared in accordance to constructivist learning principles are 09

13 The Turkish Online Journal o Educational Technology TOJET July 200 ISSN: volume 6 Issue 3 Article 0 used? is answered. Towards this end an evaluation questionnaire regarding teaching material prepared in accordance to constructivist learning principles was administered. Findings o this survey are presented in table. Table. Students Views on Teaching Material Prepared According to Constructivist Learning Principles Constructivist Teaching Material Checklist Yes Partially No X. Did the material provide you with an opportunity to discover inormation by association to previous knowledge? 2. Did the material determine your viewpoints and opinions regarding the subject beore giving inormation about the subject? 3. Did the material eed your curiosity by allowing discovery, introducing the concepts and application? 4. Did the material present you with instructions such as compare, determine, classiy, analyze, guess, orm aimed to set you in motion in the learning process? 5. Did the material provide case scenarios and questions designed to help you develop dierent viewpoints on event? 6. Did the material give you opportunities to orm and express your own viewpoints?. Did the material help you make real lie connections by giving examples?. Did the material support your autonomy and initiative? 9. Did the material provide opportunities or interaction between you and the teacher or other students? 0. Did the material direct you towards dierent resources such as books, encyclopedia and web sites by providing open ended, curiosity uelling and thought provoking questions?. Did the material provide or questions regarding How you learned alongside the questions about What you learned? 2. Did the material direct you towards primary sources such as documents, documentaries and the like? 3. Did the material provide or problem based learning, cooperation based learning and sample case examination during the learning process? Average 2.64 Table. summarizes students responses to the questionnaire. For the items titled: Did the material provide or problem based learning, cooperation based learning and sample case examination during the learning process? ( X = 2.), Did the material present you with instructions such as compare, determine, classiy, analyze, guess, orm aimed to set you in motion in the learning process? ( X = 2.5), Did the material provide case scenarios and questions designed to help you develop dierent viewpoints on events? ( X = 2.5), Did the material provide opportunities or interaction between you and the teacher or other students? ( X = 2.2), Did the material provide or questions regarding How you learned alongside the questions about What you learned? ( X = 2.2), Did the material determine your viewpoints and opinions regarding the