The effect of modular teaching supported by reflective thinking activities on students' academic achievement in 5th graders' information technologies & software classes

The aim of the research is to determine the effect of modular teaching assisted by reflective thinking activities on the students' academic achievement in 5th graders' information technologies and software classes. Empirical method was used in the research. The research was carried out by the model 'pre- test and post - test control group'. The field of study is consisted of the 5th grade students studying at Vali Tevfik Başakar Secondary School during the academic year of 2014-2015. The groups in the study were determined by group matching method. Experimental and control groups were consisted of 20 students per each. Determining the experimental and control groups, the scores of students which they got from the pre-test were used. "The word processing module supported by the reflective thinking activities" was handed out to the experimental group and modular teaching was applied them. The course was carried out by traditional method in the control group. Multiple-choice academic achievement test was used in the study. The data obtained by the academic achievement test results were analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software package programme. In the stage of analyzing, Mann- Whitney U test or Wicoxon Signed Rank test were performed according to the hypothesis. In terms of the analysis results obtained, considering the academic achievement of the experimental group in which the lessons were carried out by the word processing module supported by the reflective thinking activities (median=4) and the academic achievement of the control group in which the lessons were carried out by traditional method (median=1), significant result was obtained in favour of the experimental group as (U=68,5, p<0, 05). According to another result obtained by the research, any statistically significant difference between the post-test and retention test scores of the students in the experimental group was not observed (z = -1 , 221, p> 0 , 05) . In accordance with this analysis result, the word processing module supported by the reflective thinking activities supplied permanent learning. The result of survey, a proposal has been brought that the modular teaching supported by the reflective thinking activities can be used in lessons such as information technologies and software classes. Keywords: Teaching Module, Reflective Thinking, Word Processing Programme, Information Technology and Software.