The effects of different methods on students' science process skills, problem solving skills, academic achievements and retentions in primary school fifth grade science and technology lessons

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different methods (Problem Based Learning, Cooperative Learning) on students? science process skills , problem solving skills, academic achievements and retentions in primary school fifth grade Science and Technology Lessons.Pretest-posttest design was used in the study. In this study, two experiments and a control group have been used.One of the experiment groups used Problem Based Learning methods and the other groups used Cooperative Learning methods.Special procedures are not applied to the control group.Standart deviations and means were calculated and independent t-test analysis, anova for repeated measures were performed. The analyses revealed the following:Problem Based Learning group and Cooperative Learning group more effective among science process skills and academic achievement than control group. On the other hand, problem solving skills and retention are similar with the control group.Between Problem Based Learning methods and Cooperative Learning methods are the similar that science process skills, problem solving skills, academic achievements and retentions.There are no difference all groups? test scores of science process skills, academic achievements and retentions in favor of boys.Also, there are significant difference in cooperative learning and current teaching methods test scores of problem solving skills in favor of boys.