The Effects of constructivism and problem-based learning on students` success in the teaching the topic heritage` at the 8th grade

In this study the effects of Constructivism and Problem-Based Learning on students?success in the teaching the topic of ?heritage? at the 8th grade science lessons wereinvestigated.The study was administered to the 197 8th grade students studying at Fevzi AtlıoğluPrimary School in Keçiören County in Ankara.To make sure the control and experimental groups were identical, the school reportsof these students at 7th grade were used and it was seen that the groups shared similaracademic success. The topic ?heritage? was taught by Constructivism in the control groupand it is taught by Problem-Based Learning in the experimental group for four weeks.The activities and techniques that were based on Constructivism and Problem-BasedLearning were implemented for both groups and the final test was given to determine thestudents? success at the end of the experiment. The data was analyzed by SPSS 10.0 version.To evaluate the significance of difference between the groups T-test was used. Thesignificance difference was 0.05.The results suggested that both methods were effective on learning. Howeverproblem-based learning was proved to be superior to promote success in science education.Key terms: science education, constructivism, problem-based learning.