THE EFFECTS OF JIGSAW AND COMPUTER ANIMATIONS TECHNIQUES ON UNDERGRADUATES’ UNDERSTANDING OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY CONCEPTS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer animations and jigsaw techniques on first year undergraduates’ understanding of electrochemical concepts in general chemistry, and differences in effects upon students of varying scientific reasoning ability are explored. The study included 82 first-year undergraduate students from two classes of a general chemistry course in a faculty of education in a university. One of the classes was defined as the Jigsaw group; the second was defined as the animation. In this study, the Test of ScientificReasoning and Electrochemistry Concepts Understanding Test were used. Findings of the studysuggest that teaching through computer animations and jigsaw techniques had equal effects onstudents’ conceptual understanding of electrochemistry topics. However, it is also found thatstudents in the both groups had experienced difficulties in transferring the knowledge gatheredinto practice.