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Democratic Practices in a Constructivist Science Classroom

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Abstract

The constructivist learning approach is suggested as a means for facilitating students’ learning of science and increasing their participation in this learning. Several studies have shown the contribution of this approach to the different aspects of students’ learning of science, though little research has examined the contribution of this approach to the democratic environment of the science classroom. The present study attempted to do so. 34 grade 5 science students studied the energy unit of the science book using the V-shape strategy, and 38 grade 5 science students studied the same unit without using the strategy. The research results show that students who used the V-shape strategy had significantly higher scores in democratic practices than students who did not use the strategy. Moreover, the democratic practices in the science classroom were not influenced significantly by the independent variables (science ability, general ability, and preferred subject). The results of the current study also show that, in the experimental group, only the correlation between involvement and freedom was significant, while in the control group, all of the correlations among involvement, freedom, and equality were significant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine

    Wajeeh Daher & Abdel-Gani Saifi

  2. Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, Baka, Israel

    Wajeeh Daher

Authors
  1. Wajeeh Daher
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  2. Abdel-Gani Saifi
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Correspondence to Abdel-Gani Saifi.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Please read carefully the following statements and indicate your agreement or disagreement with it on a scale of five levels:

1. I strongly disagree 2. I disagree 3. I am not sure 4. I agree 5. I strongly agree

Table 6 The freedom questionnaire
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Daher, W., Saifi, AG. Democratic Practices in a Constructivist Science Classroom. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 16, 221–236 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9772-4

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