Investigating the effects of the problem based learning approach on understanding the topics of magnetism

In the research, it was aimed to investigate effects of problem based learning approach and traditional teaching methods on undergraduate students' academic achievement, conceptual understanding, critical thinking skills and retention levels in teaching of magnetism topics. The research was conducted with 48 students attending of 1st class of the Department of Science Teaching at the Buca Faculty of Education in Dokuz Eylül University and nonequivalent control group design was implemented. The topics of Magnetism was taught to experimental group by PBL method, and taught to control group by traditional teaching methods. The data was collected by using the "Achievement Test for Magnetism Topics", "Concept Test for Magnetism Topics", "Scale of Critical Thinking Skills". The data were analyzed with the independent samples t-test, Mann Whitney U test, ANCOVA and correlation analysis. According to the results of the research, it was found that both problem based learning approach and traditional teaching methods develop students' academic achievement at the same level, however, problem based learning approach was more effective than traditional teaching methods in improving students' conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills about magnetism topics.