The effects of discovery learning supported with learning boxes on students' academic achievement, competences for learning science and science attitude

Learning through discovery is seen as an effective tool to enable higher level learning by enabling students to move away from being audience and act more independently and actively within the classroom. The aim this study was to investigate the effects of learning boxes on the 5th grade students' academic achievement and retention in the science classes. In order to realize this aim, a quantitative research method including an experimental design was used. Students in the experimental group were taught through learning boxes during "let's solve our body puzzle" unit of the 5th grade science classes, while students in the control group were taught the same unit through the teaching activities framed in the national curriculum. The participants involved 48 (Experiment: 24, Control: 24) students attending a state secondary school in Diyarbakir-Çinar district during the fall semester of 2016-2017 academic year. The study revealed that students taught through discovery learning supported with learning boxes scored significantly higher in academic achievement in comparison with the participants in the control group after the 10 weeks of the experimental learning process. The post-test results showed a statistically significant difference between the male and the female participant students in experimental group. Developing tools used in science teaching in the form of learning boxes and integrating them into constructivist approaches is among suggestions of the research. © 2020 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.