The effect of project based learning approach to the logical thinking ability and attitude of students in science lesson

This research is carried out with the aim of investigating the effect of projectbased learning approach in teaching science to the logical thinking ability and attitudetowards science lesson of seventh grade students of primary education. In research,?Logical thinking group test?(LTGT) is applied to evaluate the students logical thinkingability and ?Attitude scale towards science?(ASTS) is applied to evaluate the studentsattitude for science lesson.The research is applied in 2005-2006 academic year at spring term on thestudents of Ankara Province, Yenimahalle District, Yüksel Sarıkaya Primary EducationSchool.To examine the effect of project based learning approach in teaching science tothe logical thinking ability and attitude towards science lesson, an experiment group anda control group is established. ?Personal Information Form?, which is applied to all 7-thgrade students before the experimental process, determined the experiment and thecontrol groups of the research. Experiment and control group students are tried to bebalanced through different variables ( gender, sixth grade science lesson grade averages,weekly study times reserved for science lesson).So; class 7/C is selected as an experiment group and class 7/A is selected as acontrol group. An education appropriate to the principles of Project Based learningapproach is applied along the unit in process (6 weeks) to the experiment group students(7/C class). On the other hand, an education appropriate to the traditional learningapproach is applied to the students of control group (7/A class).?Logical Thinking Group Test? (LTGT) and ?Attitude Scale TowardsScience?(ASTS) are given as pre-test and final test to both groups before and afterexperimental process. In this point of view the research is designed with respect to? pre-test - final test control grouped? model. In the analysis of gained data, statisticalprocesses, t-test, mean ( x ), standart deviation (s), frequency (f), percentage (%) anddouble factored anova are used. Statistical processing is made at the SPSS 11.0program. Whether the gained data is meaningful or not is evaluated according to .05significant levels.At the end of the study, according to gained data, it is concluded that beforeexperimental process, according to the logical thinking scores, there is no meaningfuldifference between the students of experiment group which are applied the projectbased learning approach and the control group which are applied the traditionaleducation approach. On the other hand, it is also concluded that after the experimentalprocess, according to the logical thinking scores there is a significant differencebetween the students of experiment group which are applied the project based learningapproach and the control group which are applied the traditional education approach infavour of experiment group.It is concluded that, after the experimental process, according to gender, there isno meaningful difference in final test logical thinking ability scores between thestudents of experiment group which are applied the project based learning approach andthe control group which are applied the traditional education approach.It is concluded that before experimental process, according to the attitude scaletowards science scores, there is no meaningful difference between the students ofexperiment group which are applied the project based learning approach and the controlgroup which are applied the traditional education approach. On the other hand, it is alsoconcluded that after the experimental process, according to the final test attitude scaletowards science scores there is a significant difference between the students ofexperiment group which are applied the project based learning approach and the controlgroup which are applied the traditional education approach in favour of experimentgroup.