The Effects of Problem-Based Learning on Self-Regulated Learning Skills and the Variables Predictive of These Skills

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the effects of problem-based learning with traditional teaching method on prospective teachers’ self-regulated learning skills. In addition to that, the study also set out to determine the levels of attitudes towards problem-based learning and self-efficacy perceptions of problem-based learning of prospective teachers and to check whether or not the two variables are significant predictors of self-regulated learning skills. 49 prospective teachers from the Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, Hacettepe University, participated in this study. The study data were collected with The Self-Regulated Learning Scale, The Attitude Scale Towards Problem-Based Learning, and The Scale of Self-Efficacy Perception of Problem-Based Learning. In the light of the findings, it was found that the problem-based learning and the traditional teaching method did not have significant effects on prospective teachers’ self-regulated learning skills. It was also found that the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards and their self-efficacy perceptions of problem-based learning were at the middle level, and that the two variables accounted for 49% of the total variance in self-regulated learning skills. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n14p297