Constructivist Curriculum Design and Its Impact on Academic Performance of Sixth Grade Elementary Students in Experimental Science

Shafiei Sarvestani, Maryam; Darabi Emarati, Abedin

Constructivist Curriculum Design and Its Impact on Academic Performance of Sixth Grade Elementary Students in Experimental Science

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University

² PhD student in Curriculum Studies of Shiraz University and a member of the faculty of the Department of Educational Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, IRAN.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was a combination of two consecutive exploratory stages, designing a constructive curriculum and its effect on the academic performance of sixth grade elementary students in the course of experimental sciences. In the first stage, with a qualitative approach and by analyzing different texts, data was extracted by content analysis method. Then, in order to build a network of themes and a constructive curriculum model, interviews were conducted with experts and professors in the field of curriculum. Statistical themes of qualitative data were presented as an educational model. In the second stage, the students 'academic performance was compared with the control group of the students' academic performance using a Trial method using a pretest and posttest design. The statistical population was in the quantitative part of all primary school students in the sixth grade of Sahneh city, which was selected as a multi-stage cluster of two classes as a sample. Researcher-made test was used to measure academic performance. The results of multivariate (or one-way) analysis of covariance showed that a constructive curriculum improves learners' performance in terms of content, cognition and scientific research.

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