AN ATTEMPT TO INCREASE STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN A CLASSICAL CLASSROOM SETTING: EFFECTS OF SEATING ARRANGEMENT AND DOING HOMEWORKS

Abstract

Purpose and significance: Improving student success is a constantly discussed issue. Although modern methods such as cooperative learning have been proposed, these are not always applicable with the available resources. Riyadh Turkish International School (RUTO) is working under the Turkish Embassy and serving around 1500 students. Due to limited space within the classrooms together with the limited number of classrooms, it is not possible to make major seating arrangements. As the students are seated in pairs, we decided to test the hypothesis whether rearranging seating positions enabling cooperation of the less successful and most successful students has any effect on student success. Methods: During the 2006-2007 teaching period RUTO class 4C had 33 students arranged in three rows of seats with two students in each seat, the teacher standing in front of the class. According to the mean scores taken from the first written exams in Mathematics, Turkish, Science, and Social sciences, the students were sorted from the most successful to the least successful. Six students from the top and six from the bottom of the list were taken and seating was rearranged by matching one less successful student with one most successful classmate. This seating was preserved until the next exams and the change in the scores was analyzed. Results: Thirty three students were registered to the 4C class during the teaching period. One students left after one month; the remaining 32 students were included in the study. Mean age of the students was 14.4 with 15 (46.9%) girls and 17 (53.1%) boys. According to the average of the first exams, six of the students had scores of less than 63, whereas six students had 89 and higher scores. Four out of the six least successful students increased their mean scores in the second exams. The mean scores of two students were decreased. There was no statistically significant difference between the first and second exam scores of the least successful students (z=-1,367, p=0,172). Four out of the six most successful students increased their mean scores in the second exams. One student had the same score and the mean score of one student decreased. There was no statistically significant difference between the first and second exam scores of the most successful students (z=-1,214, p=0,225). Discussion and Conclusions: The method applied in this study may be of benefit to increase student success, especially in schools with limited resources. It may be especially useful if the classroom circumstances and the resources do not permit making arrangements for cooperative learning. Since the power of the study is limited due to limited sample size, further studies with larger samples will shed more light to this issue.

Keywords

• cooperation, exam success, homework, seating arrangement

KLASİK SINIF ORTAMINDA ÖĞRENCİ BAŞARISINI ARTIRMAK İÇİN BİR GİRİŞİM: OTURMA DÜZENİ VE ÖDEV YAPMANIN ETKİSİ

Abstract

Etkileşim ve işbirliği, eğitimin başarısını artıran yöntemler olmakla birlikte olanakların kısıtlı olması halinde her zaman uygulanamamaktadır. Bu araştırmada çok ve az başarılı öğrenciler arasındaki etkileşimi artırmanın öğrencilerin başarılarına etkisini incelemek amaçlanmıştır. Dördüncü sınıf birinci sınavlarından en çok ve en az puanı alan altışar öğrenci birlikte oturtulduğunda bir sonraki sınav döneminde başarısız öğrencilerin puanlarında bir artma olurken ödev yapmama durumlarında da bir azalma olmuştur. Az başarılı öğrencilerin Türkçe, Matematik, Fen ve Sosyal Bilgiler not ortalamaları 53,6 puandan 58,6 puana çıkarken en başarılı öğrencilerin not ortalamaları da 91,0 puandan 93,0 puana çıkmıştır. Ortalama yapılmayan ödev sayısı az başarılı öğrencilerde %21,3’ten %15’e düşmüştür. Daha geniş ölçekli araştırmalarla desteklenmesi halinde uygulanan yöntem klasik sınıf ortamında öğrenci başarısını artırmada yararlı olabilir.

Keywords

• İşbirliği, sınav başarısı, ödev, oturma düzeni