Influence of Joyful Learning on Elementary School Students' Attitudes Toward Science

This study investigated the effects of joyful learning approach on elementary school students' attitudes toward science. The method used is quasy experiment with the participants were devided into two gropus. Thirty three of 4th grade students volunteered as an experimental group, and the otherforty two actas a control group. The data was collected by questionnaire that are given before and after the lesson, observation sheet, and interview. The effect of joyful learning on students' attitude was obtained by determining the n-gain and independent t-test. Observation and interview results were used to triangulate and support the quantitative findings. The data showed that the gain scores of the experimental group students' attitudes toward science were significantly higher than the gain scores of control group. In addition, the experimental group made significantly greater progress in their cognitive, affective and conative experiences. Interviews and observations indicated that their attitude toward science changed over the intervention. This indicated that joyful learning approach can enhance theelementary school students' attitudes toward science. According to these findings, it can be concluded that joyful learning approach can be used as an alternative approach to imrpove student's attitude toward science.