The effects of jigsav technique cooperative learning method on elementary school fifth grade students attitudes towards scıence and technolog course

The main aim of this study is to determine the effects of implementing the jigsaw technique of cooperative learning method on the attitudes of fifth grade students towards the unit of `Earth, Sun and Moon? in Science and Technology course.Jigsaw technique is the independent variable while the attitude towards the Science and Technology course makes up the dependent variable. The study is designed on a pretest ? post test experimental model with a control group. The study was conducted in a public elementary school in İzmir?s Foça district in the spring semester of 2007 ? 2008 academic year with 39 students, whose socio-economic status is medium.One of the two fifth grade classes in the school subject to study was stated as the experimental group, while the other one was stated as the control group. The academic achievements of the students? in these two classes are compared in 2007 ? 2008 fall semester and it is concluded that they are equivalent in academic terms. The application continued 10 weeks. The courses in the experimental group were carried out in accordance with the jigsaw technique by the researcher; while the courses in the control group were conducted by the class teacher, in accordance with 2007 ? 2008 Science and Technology Course Teaching Program. The qualitative and quantitive research methods are used together to state the effect of jigsaw technique in teaching process. The data collection instrument is ?Science and Technology Course Attitude Scale? developed by Baykul (1990). The scale is applied before and after the process, and four weeks later for retention. A ?personal inquiry form? is also used to gather personal information of the students? in the study groups. A semi-structured interview form is implemented on randomly selected students from experimental and control groups, to state the opinion of the students? on science and technology.In the study, covariance analysis as a statistical technique is used on the data collected from the attitude scale. The level of significance was taken as p<.05. Content analysis technique was used in order to analyze the data obtained from semi-structured interview form.The results obtained from the pre-test of attitude scale indicates that there are no significant difference between the experimental and control group. According to the data obtained from the post-test after application, post-test scores indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group. On the other hand, no statistically significant difference is found between the two groups on retention scores. However, when the retention and post-test attitude average scores are compared, a significant increase in average scores in both of the groups can be observed even though the retention test is implemented after four weeks of application. In other words, both of the methods effected positively; increasing the retention of the students? attitudes toward the course permanence.According to the data derived from the interviews, nearly all of the students indicated that they are interested in science and technology; but expressed the course hours to be insufficient and willing to take the courses in laboratory setting.Keywords: Cooperative Learning Method, Science and Technology Teaching, Attitudes, Jigsaw Technique