Brain Based Learning in Science Education in Turkey: Descriptive content and Meta analysis of dissertations

Abstract

This study aimed at performing content analysis and meta-analysis on dissertations related to brain-based learning in science education to find out the general trend and tendency of brain-based learning in science education and find out the effect of such studies on achievement and attitude of learners with the ultimate aim of raising awareness about increasing brain-based learning in science education in Turkey. The study was carried out with document analysis, which is one of the non-interactive qualitative research methods. Study sample consisted of 21 dissertations related to the effect of brain-based learning in science education. Both content analysis and meta-analysis were performed on the dissertations. The content analysis was carried out by using the "Paper Classification Form" by Sözbilir, Kutu & Yaşar (2012). In the second stage, a meta-analysis of the relevant dissertations was performed to determine the effect of brain-based learning on achievement and attitude. It was found out that brain-based learning is mostly applied in science and technology education (66,67 %) at secondary level-I; some studies, though few, are conducted in biology (23,81 %) and physics (4,76 %) education; however, no study is available in the field of chemistry education at secondary level-II and primary education. It was also found out that teaching is the most frequently studied subject matter (80,95 %), of these dissertations, 48,57 % aimed at investigating the effect of this learning model on students' achievement and 40 % about the effect of the same on students' attitude, interest and so on. Moreover, it was seen that brain-based learning research in science education is mostly conducted with quantitative research methods (90,58%), most of which (76,20 %) employs the quasi-experimental method. In relation with study sample; 76,19 % of the studies are carried out at secondary level-I (5-8 grades) with 31 to 100 participants (76,19 %). It was revealed that in data analysis, descriptive analysis as a type of quantitative data analysis is used the most (57,65%), which covers percentile, frequency (24,71 %) and the mean, standard deviation, etc. (23,53 %); while infrential statistics (31.76%) includes t-tests at the highest frequency (17,65%). According to the meta-analysis results, the effect of brain-based learning on achievement in science education is calculated to be 1.382, which is high or wide, and the effect on attitude is 0.466, middle, according to the random effect model. These results indicate a positive and significant effect of brain-based learning approach on achievement and attitude of learners. Based on the study results, it is suggested that brain-based learning should be more widespread in the fields of chemistry, physics and biology and primary education and that qualitative and mixed research as well as quantitative research methodology should be done for obtaining reliable, valid and in-depth results in the future.

Keywords: Science education, brain based learning, descriptive content analysis, meta analysis, Turkey.