THE EFFECT OF 5E LEARNING CYCLE ON MENTAL ABILITY OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate effect of 5E learning cycle instruction on 4th grade students’ mental ability in the unit of “Introduction to the Matter”. The subjects of this study were 160 students from four different classes enrolled to Science Course in an Elementary School in TURKEY. Non-equivalent pre-test/post-test control group design was used. Two of the classes randomly chosen as experimental group (79) took 5E learning cycle instruction, and the other two chosen as control group (81), took traditional instruction. Word-Association Test (WAT) was administered to the experimental and the control groups as pre- and post-tests to measure the students’ mental ability related to Unit of “Introduction to the Matter”. The data collected from WAT was converted into mind maps by using content analysis and cut off point methods. As a result of application, while “Introduction to the Matter” subject was seen as a whole on the mind maps of the experimental group of students, mind maps of the control group students were seen to be composed of piecemeal knowledge islets. Hence, it proves that the experimental group students learn terms in a more meaningful and more interrelated way than the control group students. Key words: 5E learning cycle, mind maps, word association test.