Effectiveness on academic achievement, attitude, perception of self- efficacy and critical thinking disposition of brain based learning in biology teaching

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of brain-based learning approach on academic achievement, attitudes, self-efficacy releated to biology lessons and critical thinking disposition in General Biology II, for the department of Primary Science Education. The pre-test/post-test control group research model was used in this study. The study group was conducted 65 second-year student in the spring semester of 2008-2009 academic year, Sakarya University Faculty of Education, Science Education, Department of Primary Section. The study conducted during the teaching of General Biology II lesson on the "Embryonic development", "Nervous System", "Hormone System", "Reproductive System", "Circulatory System", "Respiratory System", "Urinary System", "Immune System" and "Digestive System" units. The research was applaied four hours per week, 14 weeks in total. Learning style inventory, learning approach scale, attitude scale, biological self efficacy scale, critical thinking disposition scale and unit tests which were developed by the researcher were used in this research. At the end of the intervention, an interview session was done with randomly chosen nine students in the experimental group. The SPSS software program was used in the statistical data analysis procedure. According to the results of the study, there were not any significant difference between the experimental and control groups of academic achievement, attitudes, perception of the self efficacy and critical thinking disposition. Additionally, during the interview session students expressed a positive view about the teaching practices that were structured on the brain-based learning approach.