The effect of blended learning and social media-supported learning on the students’ attitude and self-directed learning skills in science education

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of blended learning and social media supported learning on the students’ attitude and self-directed learning skills in Science Education. This research took place with the 7th grade 74 students attending to a primary school in Kadikoy, Istanbul and carried out “Our Body Systems” unit at 2011-2012 Academic Year. The design of the study was pretest–posttest control group design. Control Group is taught by using the traditional face to face approach with the 5E learning cycle, one of the experimental groups received blended learning model (face to face and internet based learning) with the 5E learning cycle and the other experimental group received social networking supported based on face to face approach and the 5E learning cycle model. Data were collected using the Science Teaching Attitude Scale and the Self-directed Learning Skills Scale. Quantitative data were analyzed by One-Way Anova, t-Tests and Kolmogorov Smirnov-Z Test of SPSS 17 Statistic Program. As a result, while blended learning experimental group increase science attitude and self-directed learning skills significantly than the control group; social media supported learning group has a positive impact on attitude and self-directed learning skills, although this change didn’t make a significant difference compared with the control group. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.