THE EFFECT OF BLENDED LEARNING MODEL ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ BIOLOGY ACHIEVEMENT AND ON THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE INTERNET

 

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to determine the effect of the blended learning model on high school students’ biology achievement and on their attitudes towards the Internet. Among the experimental models, the pretest-posttest control group model was used in the study. The study was carried out with 107 students (47 of whom were in the experimental group, and 60 of whom were in the control group) attending Nevzat Ayaz Anatolian High School in Diyarbakýr in Spring Term of the academic year of 2009-2010. In the experimental group, the courses were taught based on the blended learning model via a website (www.e-biyoloji.net), while in the control group, the courses were taught based on traditional teaching methods. An Internet Attitude Scale (=0,97) and an achievement test of 40 questions (KR-20=0.88) were used as the data collection tools. For the analysis of the data, mean scores, independent t-test and paired samples t-test were used. The research results revealed that the blended learning model contributed more to the students’ biology achievement than traditional teaching methods did and that the students’ attitudes towards the Internet developed statistically significantly.