Determination of Teacher Characteristics That Support Constructivist Learning Environments
| Autor: | AYDOGDU, Bulent, SELANIK AY, Tugba |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Zdroj: | Volume: 16, Issue: 63 Eurasian Journal of Educational Research |
| ISSN: | 1302-597X 2528-8911 |
| Popis: | Problem Statement: Exploring the variables that affect teachers’ teachingapproaches in learning environments is crucial to determining theirresponse to new trends. Their teaching and learning characteristics set thesuccess level of the new reforms. In addition, monitoring the usage ofconstructivist pedagogies and giving feedback about them are othercrucial aims of this research.Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to identify thecharacteristics of primary school teachers that helped them prepareconstructivist learning environments.Method: The data were collected through the Constructivist LearningEnvironment Questionnaire (CLEQ) and a modified version of Draw aClassroom Teacher Test Checklist (DACTT-C), which is a modifiedversion of the Draw a Science Teacher Test Checklist (DASTT-C). Thesample of the study was 115 primary school teachers from schools inAfyon, Turkey. Convenience sampling was used as a sampling strategy.Findings: The results of the study showed that the gender of primaryschool teachers was not a factor in determining the constructivistcharacteristics of the primary school, and less experienced primary schoolteachers were more willing to use constructivist principles in their primaryschool. The primary school teachers’ drawings were analyzedqualitatively. There were 15 missing drawings in the survey, soresearchers scored and evaluated only 100 drawings. Only eight primaryschool teachers’ drawings (8%) reflected a student-centered teaching style;56% had both student and teacher-centered characteristics; and 36% wereteacher-centered. Two of the eight student-centered drawings belonged tomales and four of the eight drawings belonged to teachers with 0 to 5 years of experience. Three of the eight student-centered drawings belonged to teachers with a master’s degree and five belonged to teachers with a bachelor degree.Conclusion and Recommendations: Primary school teachers who had graduate degrees were more open to using constructivist characteristics in teaching and learning. Females and less experienced primary school teachers had a higher tendency to draw student-centered instructional characteristics. Turkish teachers are mostly in a transition process from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered instruction. The Ministry of National Education should promote collaboration between senior and novice teachers. Primary school teachers should be supported with pre-service and in-service training programs during the transition process of teacher-centered teaching to a student-centered teaching style. For further research, primary school teachers’ perceptions about constructivist learning environments should be observed in the primary school environment.Keywords: constructivist learning environments, primary school teachers, teacher characteristics, draw a classroom teacher test checklist, primary school drawings. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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