EFFECTS OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT DESIGNED ACCORDING TO COMMON KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION MODEL ON 5TH GRADE STUDENTS’ NATURE OF SCIENCE

Abstract

It is crucial that students have sufficient views on the nature of science in the realization of the vision of the Science Curriculum. In recent years, it is seen that one of the teaching models utilized in learning environments is the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM). One of the main points of this model is that it is focused on the nature of science. The purpose of this present investigation was to examine the impact of fifth-grade students on the nature of science within the context of the "Traveling and Knowing the World of Life" unit of the learning environment designed according to CKCM. The study was conducted with 32 fifth grade students in a middle school in Van province centre during the 2016-2017 academic year. One group pretest-posttest experimental design was used in the present study. “Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire” (VNOS) was applied as a data collection tool. Next, it was conducted a semi-structured interview regarding elements of Nature of Science (ENOSSI). The quantitative data were analyzed using dependent t-test and descriptive statistics (mainly frequency and percentage tables) and the content analysis was utilized for the qualitative data. According to the findings of the investigation; it was seen that the opinions of the students were more sufficiently knowledge about nature of science after the application while the most of the students’ views on the nature of science were weak and variable at the beginning of the study. Furthermore, the most development of the students was experimental and uncertain factors in the nature of science while the least development of the participants was subjective, social and cultural elements of nature of science. Hence, it might be said that the conducting of the CKCM-based learning environment have influential on the fifth-grade students’ views on nature of science.