The opinions of primary school teachers and students regarding to the structural communication grid technique

In science and technology curriculum of 4th and 5th grades, structural communication grid is one of the alternative assessment-evaluation techniques suggested by teachers. Therefore, there is a growing need to interview with teachers and students about the use of grids, problems in the use of them, and precautions to compensate these problems. In this sense, the study aims to investigate the opinions of primary school teachers and their students regarding to the use of structural communication grids.In this study, interviewing was used as a qualitative method. The data were gathered through semi-structured interview technique and the interviews were audiotaped. Criteria sampling method, being a purposive sampling methods, was used. The researcher and a field expert performed analysis independently and the codes found as the result of analyses were compared. The reliability of the study was found %92 by using formula of Miles and Huberman.The theme, subtheme and categories gained from the content analysis were classified through tables and they were presented giving citations from the opinions of participants. It was concluded from the study (1) primary school teachers and students found structural communication grid technique beneficial and enjoyable, (2) structural communication grids developed positive attitudes, (3) structural communication grids provided meaningful learning and retention. The teachers also specified that most of primary teachers considered the preparation of structural communication grids difficult or teachers felt themselves insufficient to prepare them. Students describe the structural communication grid as enjoying, providing, permenant learning raising success and providing effortlessness. Some of the students state that teacher give feedback after practice but many students do not state as same way. Students also state that they want to use structural communication grid in social sciene lesson more.Keywords: Science and technology course, alternative assessment, structural communication grids.