The aim of this study was twofold: (a) to investigate whether seventh grade students&rsquo / conditional and procedural knowledge acquisition in, attitude towards, active learning strategies in, and learning value of geometry improve differentially for students having different cognitive styles in project-based learning and (b) to examine how project-based learning affects them.
Participants were 97 seventh-grade students in a private school in Ankara. The students were classified into three groups: Field dependent (N=31), field middle (N=35), and field independent (N=31), based on the raw scores of the participants from the Group Embedded Figures Test. Only one treatment (i.e., project-based learning) was conducted for the study, lasting 30 lesson hours. Pre-test and post-test design for the students having three different cognitive styles was utilized.
A mixed methods design integrating both quantitative and qualitative data was used for this study. The data were collected through Conditional and Procedural Knowledge Tests, Active Learning Strategies in and Learning Value of Geometry Questionnaire, Geometry Attitude Scale, interview responses, and classroom observation field notes.
The quantitative analyses were carried out by using Mixed Design (one between factor and one within factor) Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results revealed that there is no significant interaction between time and group. There was a substantial main effect for time and follow up analyses for this effect showed that the students achieved large learning gains for all dependent variables. In addition, the main effect of group was not significant.
According to interview responses and classroom observation field notes, those quantitative results were attributable to the influence of contextualizing, visualizing, and collaborating geometry concepts with their peers and teacher during benchmark lessons and developing and sharing artifacts for each of the cognitive style group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611730/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 March 2010 |
| Creators | Aydinyer, Yurdagul |
| Contributors | Ubuz, Behiye |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Ph.D. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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