The effects of technology-enhanced Jigsaw-I activities applied in the 7th grade electrical circuits unit on academic success and technology awareness

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of technology-enriched jigsaw activities developed for the topics of "Series connection, parallel connection, electric current, voltage" in the "Electrical Circuits" unit of the 7th grade middle school Science course on students' awareness of the use of technology and their academic achievement. A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test-post-test control group was used in the research. The sample of the study consists of 33 students studying in two different branches in the 7th grade of a state secondary school in a district located in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey during the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. These classes were randomly determined as the experimental group (n=15), one of which was the Jigsaw-I technique applied in the lessons, and the second as the control group (n=18), where the existing education was applied in the lessons. In this study, a total of 20 lesson hours of jigsaw applications supported by technology were carried out in the experimental group for 5 weeks. In the research; "Electrical Energy Achievement Test" and "Awareness Scale for the Use of Technology in Lessons" were used. For the analysis of the data, a statistical package program was used. The characteristics of the student groups were determined using descriptive statistics, and the mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency values obtained with quantitative analysis were examined. Since the number of students in the experimental and control groups was below 30, it was decided to use the Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed ranks test, which are non-parametric analysis methods, in the analyses. As a result of the analyses, no statistically significant difference was found between the academic success of the experimental group students and the control group students, while it was determined that teaching with the technology-supported jigsaw method was more effective in developing students' awareness of technology compared to teaching with the current program.