THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN DESIGNING CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION AND PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

The aim of this study is to determine the needs and problems of classroom teachers about designing constructivist learning environments and to lay down the practical suggestions concerning these problems. To this end, a total of 94 classroom teachers from 81 provinces who participated in the workshop aimed at designing constructivist learning environments within the framework of SBEP project were included in the scope of this study. The groups evaluated their own learning environments. Based on these evaluations, they formed documents which included defining their needs, the problems encountered and practical suggestions. It was concluded by means of document analyses that the learning environments were not real-life oriented, that they did not sufficiently relate to students’ experiences, that the constructivist approach was not grasped efficiently and that students were not properly granted autonomy in learning process.