The Impact of the 5E Learning Model Improved with Concept Maps on Motivation

The examination of students’ motivation towards lessons is an important aspect of educational studies. The constructivist approach significantly impacts the improvement of students’ motivation. The present study aims to examine the use of the 5E learning model with concept maps to support students’ motivation and compare the 5E approach and the classical approach to teaching chemistry in terms of motivational dimensions. The main subject of this study is an assessment of students’ motivation using the 5E learning model, which promotes student-centred teaching. The study was conducted with 100 8th-grade lower secondary school students who attended a school in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) during the spring semester of the 2018/19 school year. The study was conducted with two randomly selected groups: experimental (EG) and control (CG). The lessons of the EG were taught using the 5E Learning Model Improved with Concept Maps, while lessons of the CG were conducted using the current, conventional teaching method. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was applied as a data collection tool in the study. Descriptive statistics and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were used in data analysis. As a result, it was determined that the EG students’ motivation scores showed a significant difference from the CG students’ motivation scores. Furthermore, a significant difference was established between the EG and CG students’ intrinsic goal orientation and test anxiety post-test scores. Although the EG students’ averages for other sub-dimensions were higher than the CG students’ averages, no significant difference was found between the groups.