The effect of 5E learning model applied in science class on secondary school students' systematic thinking skills

This study was conducted to examine the effects of the 5E learning model, which is one of the learning circle approaches to be applied in the teaching of "Heat and Temperature" subjects taught within the scope of the "Matter and Change" unit of the science course of 5th grade middle school students, on the systematic thinking skills of the students. The sample of the study consisted of 30 middle school 5th grade students studying in Çatalzeytin district of Kastamonu province. The activities of the 5E learning model, which is one of the current teaching approaches, and a quasi-experimental method with a pretest-posttest format with an experimental-control group were applied. In this context, the research data were collected using five different data collection tools: an academic achievement test consisting of multiple-choice, short-answer and true-false questions, a checklist of 5E model activities, and a checklist of systematic thinking skills. The tests were administered to the experimental and control groups as pre-test and post-test. SPSS software was used to analyze the data. Independent t-test was used to analyze the pre- and post-test data to determine whether there was a significant difference between the groups before and after the application. Variables with more than two categories were subjected to ANOVA test. According to the pre-test results, it was observed that both experimental and control group students did not have enough systematic thinking skills for the "Heat and Temperature" subject area in the "Matter and Change" unit. According to the findings of the post-test results of the experimental and control groups, it was observed that there was a positive increase in students' systematic thinking skills. However, when a comparison was made between the groups, a statistically significant difference was obtained in favor of the experimental group. It was observed that students were positively affected by the 5E learning model in the development of their systematic skills.