The influence of educational activities prepared in accordance with field dependence ? field independence cognitive style dimensions of primary education 5th grade science and technology education on academical achievement and attitudes

The purpose of this research is to determine the influence of activities prepared in accordance with the features of primary education 5th grade students having the field dependence ? field independence cognitive style dimensions on the academical achievement and attitudes in Science and Technology course.An expreimental pattern with pretest ? final test control group was used in this research. Educational activities prepared according to the features of the students with the field dependence ? field independence cognitive style dimensions were used in the experimental group and educational activities anticipated by the program were used in the control group.The research was maintained on two classes considered to be equal to each other with 40 students in total at Sincan Provincial Council Primary School in the second term of 2008 ? 2009 school year. These classes were determined as the experimental group in which educational activities prepared according to the features of the students with the field dependence ? field independence cognitive style dimensions were used (20) and as the control group in which educational activities anticipated by the program were used (20).Group Embebded Figure Test (GEFT) was applied to the students in the experimental and control groups of the research in order to determine the cognitive style dimensions. Science Technology Achievement Test and Science Technology Attitude Test were performed twice, once in the begining and once at the end of the experimental application in accordance with the experimental pattern model with pretest ? final test control group. Achievement and attitude tests were applied to the students in experimental and control groups once again as permanence test 4 weeks after the application of the final test. The acquired data were analysed in SPSS program.The findings depict that the application of educational activities prepared in accordance with cognitive styles makes a significant difference compared to following the teacher?s guidance and teaching the lessons with those activities, and that there is no change in the attitudes of the students in the control group while there are positive differences in the attitudes of the students in the experimental group towards Science and Technology course and additionally the experimental activity performed in the experimental group is effective on the permanence of the knowledge and attitudes of the students about the course. Some significant suggestions are represented in consideration of these findings.