CHANGES IN THE STUDENTS' UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHENOMENON OF "BURNING" IN THE CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

This study aims to find the changes in the students’ understanding by investigating the changes in reasoning ability in the phenomenon of burning through a pre- and posttest method. Understanding is presumed as a function of both active physical and mental engagement in class talk, group discussion and experiments. The results showed both quantitative and qualitative improvement in students understanding. Quantitative changes observed are attributed to the constructivist pedagogy used by the researchers. Moreover, a universality of change across the students in the breadth of the reasoning ability, the overcoming of intuitive concepts etc. was seen as an encouraging result.