Abstract:

In Turkey, constructivism has been an underlying theme of the educational reforms in last decades. The purpose of this study is to examine Turkish middle students’ perspectives on the constructivist learning environment in a science course in terms of gender and students’ age. The ACLE was administered to a sample of 1882 students from grades 6-8 randomly selected in Trabzon Province in Turkey. The findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between girls’ and boys’ views on dimensions of ACLE, including student centered, thought provoking, life relevance, concurrent learning and assessment, and bringing different viewpoints. Also, in terms of students’ grade, statistically significant differences were found on students’ view on dimensions of ACLE. The educational implications of the results were discussed. Keywords: Constructivist learning environment, students’ perception, science and technology education

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