Abstract:

This study was conducted with 180 high school 11th grade students studying in Sakarya Branch of Maltepe Private Courses. The students came from different high schools of Ankara and they were subjected to a 20 question pre-test about radioactivity in order to determine their prior knowledge about the subject. There were two equal groups formed. One of them was taught in “traditional oral way” (control group) and the second one was lectured by constructivist approach (experimental group). At the end of the teaching period the same 20 question conceptual test (final test) was re applied and there were a significant difference between the success rates of two groups. It was concluded that teaching with constructivist method was much more successful. There were interview carried out with 13 students selected from both groups in order to determine the misconceptions still sustained.

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