The effect of constructivist approach to the lesson of the basic components of living beings at the first grade high school biology lessons

The purpose of the study was to compare a constructivist approach inteaching and a traditional method about basic components of living beings in 9thgrade biology lessons.The study conducted to 54 9th grade students in two different classes at ahigh school in Ankara in 2004-2005 academic year. Teaching methods wererandomly assigned after the pre-test. The researcher taught the subject for 7 weeksaccording to Rodger Bybee?s 5E learning cycle model to experimental group andwith traditional method to control group. Same laboratory works conducted toboth classes.The research design was pre-test post-test experimental design. Basiccomponents of living beings test was administered as pre-test and post-test. Thedata which was obtained from the research were analysed with SPSS packetprogram. In order to test hypothesis an independent t-test was conducted. Theresult of the analysis showed that students who were taught by costructivistmethod were more successful than students who learn traditional method.According to the findings 5E learning cycle model which was based onthe constructivist approach is more effective than traditional method forstudents?learning biological subjects.