Effect of student centered education grounded in Dewey's progressive educational philosophy on students' academic achievements in Turkish class

The value of the individual is peaked in 21st century, so is the value of education which allows individuals to improve socially, economically and culturally. Developments such as high rates of schooling and lengthening of years dedicated to education are all signs of the increasing value of education. Although these developments are good signs, since the students are passive in learning activities, knowledge is seen as something only to be learned or memorized, and since only priority is curriculum; the students are not able to discover themselves and are prone to failure. Factors like education structure built on student interests and needs, increasing their motivation and letting them discover their own abilities would, indeed, make a difference in students' life and help them success. In this research, we examined the effects of student centered research method, which is the reflection of John Dewey's progressive approach in education, on students' academic achievements in Turkish course. The study has been executed on a sample consisting of 80 6th grade students which divided into two as 40 is experiment group and 40 is control group studying at Martyr Teacher Nurgül Kale Primary School in Sancaktepe district of İstanbul. The pretest-posttest controlled experimental design which is also described as two factor design is used. In order to measure academic achievement in the course, a test composed of 15 questions 9 of which are multiple questions is applied. For six weeks, experiment group are trained via student centered method whereas control group got standard method of training. After six weeks, academic achievement test was done and it was observed that the results of the experiment group were significantly higher than the other group (Z=-5,472; p> 0,05). For the purpose of gaining insight about students' ideas on student-centered vs. instructor centered education, an interview form including 8 open-ended questions is implemented to 4 experiment group and 4 control group students who are randomly selected. According to this interview, experiment group students claimed that it is way more enjoyable and effective to learn in the class by asking questions to each other and discussing, moreover when they actively contribute in the class their motivation and self-confidence are raised and also information they learnt is more attributable to daily life that way. On the other hand, control group sample uttered otherwise saying teacher-centered method is a thwart on their full acquisition and best absorption of the course. Besides They got bored of over exhaustion of memorization techniques in Turkish course so instructors could handle this situation by integration different activities to their curricula. Past research has shown that student-focused approach in education which is postulated by John Dewey, since it has a gist that lets students learn by doing and living, makes them eager, actively contributing and able to approach problems critically.