The effects of process based instruction on elementary school sixth grade students academic achievement and retention of learning in social studies instruction

Purpose of the study is to compare process-based instruction (PBI) and traditional teacher-centered method in teaching social studies and to research the effects of PBI on sixth grade elementary students' academic achievement and retention of learning in social studies instruction. In the study which is designed as an experimental research, traditional teaching, and process-based instruction have been selected as independent variables, and academic achivement, performance levels and retention of learning have been selected as dependent variables. The research design consists of pre-test, post-test, one experimental group and one control group The sample of the study is consisted of 51 sixth grade students who were selected randomly from two separate classes of Turhan Cemal Beriker Elementary School in Adana. One of these classes has been randomly assigned as "experimental group" and the other one as "control group" of the study. Instruction in the control group had been carried out in accordance with traditional teacher-centered method and in the experimental group instruction had been done in accordance with process-based method.Data from dependent variables had been collected by "Academic Achivement Test of Social Studies and the interview method of qualitative research". The test consists of 39 questions. 15 of the questions are on knowledge level, 13 are on comprehension level and 1 1 are on application level. To analyse the data, the technique of covariance analysis (ANCOVA) had been used. The findings of the study indicate that experimental group based on PBI are significantly different from control group based on traditional teacher-centred instruction method according to the post-test total scores, comprehension level post-test scores, application level post-test scores and retention of learning test total scores, comprehension level retention-test scores, application level retention-test scores except for the knowledge level scores. Key words: Process-based instruction (PBI), plan, planning, awareness of process, process education, metacognition, teaching and learning strategies.