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No description available.

The purpose of the study is to explore relationships among elementary school students&amp / #8217 / gender, relevant prior knowledge, meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability, self-efficacy, locus of control, attitudes toward science and achievement in genetics in learning cycle and traditional classrooms. The study was conducted on 213 8th grade students from eight classes of two public elementary schools in Ankara in 2005-2006 Spring-semester. Students in the experimental group (N=104) received learning cycle instruction that helps students acquire conceptual understanding of scientific concepts, and the students in the control group (N=109) received traditional instruction. The students were given Genetics Achievement Test as a pre-test before and as a post-test after the instruction. Students were also given Learning Approach Questionnaire that measures students&amp / #8217 / learning orientations and Test of Logical Thinking that determines students&amp / #8217 / reasoning abilities. Students&amp / #8217 / levels of self-efficacy, locus of control and their attitudes toward science also were measured. One-way ANOVA analysis revealed that learning cycle instruction improved students&amp / #8217 / achievement in genetics compared to traditional instruction. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that in learning cycle classrooms, the main predictors of achievement in genetics were students&amp / #8217 / meaningful learning orientation (49.6%) and their attitudes toward science (11.8%). In traditional classrooms, students&amp / #8217 / attitudes toward science (44%) and reasoning ability (9.8%) were the main predictors of achievement while remaining 5.7% of the variance explained by relevant prior knowledge, locus of control and meaningful learning orientation. This study revealed that different variables may be important for 8th grade students&amp / #8217 / genetics achievement in learning cycle and traditional classes.

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.

No description available.