Magister Educationis - MEd / Role-play is a teaching strategy which is very useful in enhancing the acquisition of knowledge and conceptualisation of some topics in Life Science. According to the theory of constructivism, learning science is a process in which learners construct understanding of the materials. Role-play and constructivism are intertwined, yet role-play as a teaching strategy lacks classroom application in the teaching of Life Sciences. Role-play is not often used in the teaching of Life Sciences, and to be specific, in the teaching of the circulatory system. The study is motivated by learners’ misconceptions of the circulatory system. The study is undertaken to determine the effect of role play on the learners’ conception about the human circulatory system. Random sampling resulted in the selection of one out of 6 grade 10 classes with 49 learners in each from one school in the Metro East District in Cape Town.

This study aimed to investigate the relationships among high school students&rsquo / relevant prior knowledge, meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability, self-efficacy, locus of control, attitudes toward biology and achievement in human circulatory system in learning cycle and traditional classrooms. This study was conducted with 2 teachers and 4 classes and total of 60 11th grade students in the private high schools at &Uuml / mitk&ouml / y district of Ankara in the fall semester of 2008-2009 academic years. One class of each teacher was assigned as experimental group and treated with 5E learning cycle instruction and other class was assigned as control group and treated with traditional instruction. At the beginning of the study, both teachers were trained for how to implement 5E learning cycle instruction in the classrooms. The Human Circulatory System Achievement Test was applied twice as pre-test and after treatment period as a post-test to both experimental and control groups. Learning Approach Questionnaire was used to measure students&rsquo / approach to learning and Test of Logical Thinking was used to measure reasoning abilitiy of students. Students&rsquo / levels of self-efficacy, locus of control and their attitudes toward biology also were measured. The data obtained from the administration of post-test were analyzed by using ANOVA. The statistical result indicates that learning cycle instruction improved students&rsquo / achievement in human circulatory system compared to traditional instruction. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that in learning cycle classrooms, the main predictors of achievement in human circulatory system were students&rsquo / reasoning ability (45.8%) and their prior knowledge (15.9%). In traditional classrooms, students&rsquo / meaningful learning orientation (40%) and locus of control (9.8%) were the main predictors of achievement. This study indicated that different variables may be significant for 11th grade students&rsquo / human circulatory system achievement in learning cycle and traditional classes.