The effects of teaching learnnig strategies on strategy using of prospective teachers

The present study aimed at determining the effects of learning strategy instruction carried out for prospective teachers on their learning strategy usage that had been used during their studies. In addition, determination of which instructional approach is more effective in learning strategy instruction was another aim in this study. The learning strategy instruction was realized through using direct and indirect teaching methods.This study was carried out with sequential mixed method in which both qualitative and quantitative research methods used together to expand on the findings. In qualitative process of the study pretest-posttest experimental design was used, two experimental groups and one control group were utilized. The learning strategy instruction was conducted by using direct method in one group and indirect method on the other experimental group. For the control group, there was not conducted any experimental process. Quantitative part of the study was considered as case study and integrated multicase study was carried out.Before the intervention of the study, pre-intervention study was conducted. After noticing the drawbacks and problems the pre-intervention, intervention was rearranged. The pre-intervention was conducted in 2009-2010 academic year and the main intervention was conducted in the fall semester of 2010-2011 academic year. The intervention in this study was implemented by the researcher at the course of Teaching Principles and Methods in Primary Education Program at Anadolu University.In the study both qualitative and quantitative research instruments were used. The qualitative data was comprised of interviews with prospective teachers and work texts, the quantitative one was the data obtained through learning strategy scale. MSLQ (Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) developed by Pintrich et al. was used for collecting qualitative data. Before using the learning strategy related items of the scale, the scale was redesigned through conducting exploratory factor analysis on the scale. All of the data collection tools were applied to the participants of the study before, during and after the intervention for three times. The interviews were conducted before and after experimental process.As a result of the study, according to the data obtained from interviews with prospective teachers before experimental process, it was seen that prospective teachers faced with some cognitive and affective thematic problems. Among those learning problems; facing learning difficulty, not being able to realize long lasting learning and lower learning motivation could be counted. Besides, it was seen that prospective teachers gave more place to attention and repetitive strategies than other strategies. Among the interpretation strategies, it could be stated that summarizing strategy was the most used one.According to the data obtained from learning strategy scale and work texts, it was seen that the learning strategy instruction methods conducted on two groups did not effect on the prospective teachers? strategy learning. On the other hand, during the interviews with the prospective teachers, teacher candidates stated that with the help of this instruction their awareness regarding the learning strategies was increased, they started to use different strategies during their studies, and regarding the environmental and work management, they conducted different arrangements after the intervention. According to the data obtained from prospective teachers, it could be said that although there did not occurred a significant difference between the groups in means of instructional methods, more effective results were gained in the group in which direct learning strategy instruction was conducted.As a result, it can be stated that direct and indirect teaching of learning strategies made difference in prospective teachers? awareness through learning strategies. Also some of them started to use different cognitive and source management strategies. On the other hand, result showed that there is no significant change on prospective teachers? learning strategy usage in experimental groups.Keywods: Learning, learning strategies, teaching of learning strategies, self-regulation, higher education