The Effects of Social Constructivist Approach on the Learners’ Problem Solving and Metacognitive Levels

Abstract

Problem statement: Socio-cultural constructivism; stressing the social context, culture and collaborative side of learning, is another kind of constructivism. The social constructivist approach has positive effects on learners. It can be said that in improving problem solving and met cognitive awareness skills, which are amongst basic skills every individual should possess today. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a significant difference in the learners’ problem solving skills and met cognitive levels when the authentic task-based social constructivist approach is used in an experimental group and a traditional approach is used in a control group. Approach: In the research, semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control groups has been used. The experimental group was applied, based on the constructivist approach, the authentic task-based collaborative learning process more efficient. On the other hand, the control group was put in learning environments based on the meaningful learning approach. In the research, 89 teacher candidates were included in the experimental group and 48 teacher candidates were included in the control group. The “Problem Solving Scale”, developed by Heppner and Peterson and adapted was used for acquiring the data about problem solving skills. “Metacognitive awareness scale”, developed was used for acquiring the data about metacognitive levels. Results: At the end of the research, it was observed that the difference in the experimental group teacher candidates’ problem solving skills and metacognitive levels was higher than the control group and statistically significant. Conclusion: According to this finding, it is appropriate to say that the task-based social constructivist approach has positive effects on teacher c candidates’ problem solving skills and metacognitive levels.