The Effect of Different Cooperative Learning Methods on Laboratory Activities of Science Teacher Candidates

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to determine the effects of students teams achievement divisions (STAD) and reading-writing-application (RWA) methods on teacher candidates' academic achievements, laboratory attitudes, cooperative work, laboratory safety and scientific process skills in science teaching laboratory practice-I courses. In the research, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest comparison groups was used. The research was conducted with 36 third grade teacher candidates who are studying as science teachers in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The data were collected with the academic achievement test and science laboratory attitude scale and observation. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, dependent groups t-test were used. Besides, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the academic achievements and laboratory attitudes of the teacher candidates who applied the RWA and the STAD methods. According to the observation results, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the cooperative work of the teacher candidates who applied the RWA and the STAD methods. Also, the results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between laboratory safety and basic and causal skills of teacher candidates in terms of the RWA method.