Effect of the alternative assessment approaches based on instruction during the "light" unit of science and technology class in 7th grade on academic achievements and attitudes of students

Today, significant changes have been taking place in the understanding of education depending on the developments in the science and technology. In line with these changes, it is of significant importance for the students to be raised as the individuals who make research, inquiry and structure the information by themselves, and have top thinking skills. In this context, a structuring approach, where the individual takes active role in education process of science programs, is adopted; and education programs are arranged in accordance with this approach. Followingthe gradual implementation of the science and technology education programsbased on the constructivist approach in our country; methods, technics and tools in relation with the alternative assessment approaches which take these approaches as the basis have emerged, accordingly. These methods, technics and tools are in the form of an educational tool. When we look at the methods, technics and tools which constitute the alternative assessment approaches, it is known that each of them is used for different purposes in different stages of a course. Some of these tools may be used during the beginning and the proceeding of a course as an instructive method, some again during the proceeding of the course in order to promote the interest and motivation of the students or to create a visual instructive material, and to make measurement and assessment at the end of course. Some of the so-called methods, technics and tools can be utilized in order to realize a few or whole of these purposes. In this context, it can be easily said that the methods, technics and tools which constitute the so-called assessment approaches are at the same time the individual instruction tools. Moving from this thought, the study aims to determine whether the instruction based on the alternative assessment approaches can be used as educational tool. As a result, the study aims to determine the effect of the education, based on the concept mapping, concept cartoons, semantic analysis tables, diagnostic trees, structured grids, puzzles, posters and their daily use-which are among the alternative assessment approaches-on the academic achievements and attitudes of the students by addressing these approaches. This study covering the second semester of 2014-2015 academic year has been realized with the participation of 53 students of grade 7, 25 of which were the experimental group and 28 of them were the control group. The 'light' chapter has been thought for four weeks by means of education program based on alternative assessment approachin the experimental group classroom, and by means of science and technology education program in the control group classroom. The quantitative data of the study, where quasi-experimental design with preliminary test and final test control group has been used, has been gathered through 'Academic Achievement Test', 'Attitude toward Science in School Assessment' or the 'Light' chapter; and through 'LearningTools Based on Alternative Assessment Approaches' which has been implemented for the test group students. The qualitative data of the study has been gathered through semi-structured interview form, interviews and science journals. During experimental practices, the experimental group students have kept a sciencejournals per week. In addition, after experimental implementation, 11 students were interviewed about the education program based on alternative assessment approaches. The data obtained from the study has been analyzed with SPSS 20 program. In order to determine the difference between the academic achievement test score for the test and control groups, 'Mann-Whitney U Test' has been used; and 'Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test' has been used in order to make assessment within the groups. On the other hand, in order to test the difference between the proceeding scores of the experimental and control groups for the attitude data with normal distribution, "Unpaired student t test" has been used; whereas "Paired student t test" has been used in order to make assessment within the groups. Score chart, developed for the analysis of both concept mapping and concept cartoons which are among the Learning Tools Based on Alternative Assessment Approaches applied to the students in the test group, has been utilized. The maximum scores which might be obtained in each of the semantic analysis table, diagnostic tree, structured grid and puzzle analyses have been calculated. While in the poster analysis, the assessment scale has been utilized. Since the data relationship between the total academic achievement test scoresand the total scores obtained from the education tools by the test group students who have used the Learning Tools Based on Alternative Assessment Approaches; and the data relationship between the total scores they have obtained from the activities of alternative assessment approaches they have realized individually; and the relationship between the total scores they have obtained from the activities of alternative assessment approaches they have realized as a group; and the relationship between the total scores of all the LearningTools Based on Alternative Assessment Approaches performed both in group or individually have not exhibit a normal distribution, they have been calculated by using the "Spearman Rank Correlation" value. In the study, the descriptive analysis has been utilized for the analysis of daybooks which are among the qualitative data collection tools; and the content analysis has been utilized for the analysis of the semi-structured interview form applied for the test group students. The interview results have been addressed together with the semi-structured interview form and presented with the result thereof. According to the findings of the study, statistically, a significant difference between academic achievement final test scores of the group and that of control group has been observed on the favor of experimental group students (p<.05). When we look at the attitude of the sciences course as another variable of the study, a significant difference between the final test scores of both groups has been observed on the favor of test group students (p<.05). It has been concluded that the relationship between total scores the test group students have obtained from academic achievement final test and from the activities on alternative assessment approaches they have performed individually was positive, at intermediate level and significant; the relationship between total scores they have obtained from the activities they have performed as a group was negative, at low level and significant; and the relationship between total scores they have obtained from all activities was positive, at low level and significant. According to the findings of the interview forms, interviews with students and daybooks; it has found that the courses thought with the instruction based on the alternative assessment approaches were enjoyable, understandable and interesting; and this education enables the student to easily understand the course and learn persistently. All the findings obtained from the study show that delivering education with alternative assessment approaches in sciences and technology courses have a positive impact on the academic achievement and attitudes of the students. Furthermore, it has seen that the education based on alternative assessment approaches can be used as an learning tool in the sciences courses.