Applications of small group teaching methods and tecniques field teachers working in 6. 7. and 8. classes in curriculum laboratory schools

In education systems of many developed countries, innovations have been applied so asto increase the performance of schools. Related to these innovations many schooldevelopment projects have been originated. School development is a process whichhandles the problems of school as a whole and aims to solve those problems. In thisprocess, the school's giving a more qualified education to its students and increasing thesuccess level of students are aimed.In Turkey in 1990's, Curriculum Laboratory School Model is put into practice withinthe Project of Developing National Education. Curriculum laboratory schools, "areschools in which the curricula developed, new educational, instructional andmanagement approaches will be tested before being spread in the general educationalsystem and technological developments will be reflected into education" (MEB, 1999a,p. 7). The teachers working in these schools are expected to be capable of using varioustechnical facilities and opportunities and to fulfil student-centred education in teaching-learning process.Student-centred education is dependent upon carrying out small group teaching methodsand techniques. The main small group teaching methods and techniques are problemsolving, role playing, buzz groups, fish-bowling, simulation, brain storming,cooperative learning and educational games.The aim of this study is to determine the applications of small group teaching methodsand techniques of the field teachers working in 6., 7. and 8. classes in curriculumlaboratory schools.130 field teachers working as Turkish, maths, science, English and social sciences in thecurriculum laboratory schools in Eskişehir in 2005-2006 academic year constitute thestudy population of the research.The data, necessary to reach the aim determined of the research, were collected bymeans of "the Questionnaire of the Situations of Applying Small Group TeachingMethods and Techniques".Statistical analyses of the research data were carried out by SPSS (Statistical Packagefor the Social Sciences). In analysing the data, "frequencies, percentages and meanscores", "t tests" for the comparison of two groups and "one way anowa" for thecomparison of more than two groups were calculated. In the statistical analysis, .05 wasaccepted as the significance level.In conclusion, the results seem to reveal that the teachers working in curriculumlaboratory schools often apply problem solving method; sometimes apply role playing,buzz groups, simulation, brain storming, cooperative learning and educational games;rarely apply fish-bowling technique in teaching-learning process and these situations ofapplications show no difference in terms of the teachers' seniority, branch, graduationlevel and in-service education about small group teaching methods and techniques.