Energy Education Science and Technology Part B: Social and Educational Studies
2012 Volume (issue) 4(4): 2311-2318
What do think prospective science
teachers in different gender and grade
level about constructivist approach?
Mustafa Metin, Sibel Acisli, Ali Kolomuc
*
Artvin Coruh University, Faculty of Education, 08000, Artvin, Turkey
Received: 14 August 2011; accepted: 03 November 2011
Abstract
The aim of study is to investigate prospective science teachers’ opinions about constructivist
approach in respect to the gender and grade level variables. The study was carried out with 560
prospective science teachers educated different university in north-eastern Turkeyat fall semester of
2011. Survey methodology was used in this descriptive manner study. Data was gathered with a 30-
item questionnaire which was developed and provided to reliability and validity by Balim. As a result
of the study, it was determined that teachers’ opinions about constructivist approach are at high level.
Besides, it was not found significant difference (p > 0.05) between gender, grade level and prospective
science teachers’ opinions about constructivist approach.
Keywords: Sicence teacher; Constructivism; Constructivist learning; Science and technology
©Sila Science. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the 21st century’s world as in every field, there is a rapid development and changein
science and technology and also, human life styles have been changing continuously. So, their
needs and point of views have also changed but it can be provided by means of science
education has not been changed, and the need to science education has become a necessity. In
this context, the importance of sciences has been increasing both in our country and in the
world, and in order to develop science education a lot of studies have been conducted. In
these studies, we have the understanding of student centered education that will help bring up
future generations [1-7].
Today there are a lot of studies conducted in this field both in developed and developing
countries traditional structures have construct the information in a meaningful way, and
emphasize the ways that help learners involving in the activities have been identified [2, 5, 8].
One of the methods using in these studies is constructivist approach [9]. This approach
which was developed by Wittrock has been focused on Ausubel’s idea which says that the
most important factor affecting learning is learner’s current knowledge and new knowledge is
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*
Corresponding author. Tel: +90-466-215-1043; fax: +90-466-215-1042.
E-mail address: alikolomucscr@hotmail.com (A. Kolomuc).