COMPARISON OF STUDENTS’ LEARNING AND ATTITUDES IN TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTED AND LABORATORY BASED ENVIRONMENTS

Year 2017, Volume: 6 , 109 - 113, 01.09.2017

Onur Oymak Feral Ogan-bekiroglu

Abstract

This
research study aimed to compare students’ conceptual knowledge and attitudes
towards physics lesson who were separately taught with three different methods.
The main research question was as follows: Are there significance differences
among technology supported teaching, laboratory-based teaching, and
curriculum-based teaching in terms of students’ learning and attitudes? True
experimental design was carried out for this research. The participants of this
study were 144 9^th grade students studying in an all-boys state high
school. The students who were in the technology supported classroom constituted
the first experimental group while the students in the laboratory based
classroom comprised the second experimental group. There was also one control group
whose students were taught based on the curriculum. Each group had 48 students.
The teacher of three groups was the same. Data were collected in the physics
lessons. The students’ conceptual learning was assessed with the help of
"Force and Motion Achievement Test". This test was applied before and
after the treatment with an eight-week time difference. In order to determine
any change in the students’ attitudes towards physics lesson, "Physics
Lesson Attitude Scale" was used. Effect sizes were calculated for the
changes in students’ knowledge and attitudes. Findings showed significant
differences between the experimental groups and control group. In other words,
when technology or laboratory approach was embedded in the instruction, the
students became better learners and their attitudes increased. Results also
presented no significant differences between the experimental groups. 

Keywords

Learning, attitude, technology, laboratory, science

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