Investigation of the Effects of a Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL) in Teaching the Simple Electrical Circuits Subject on the Seven Principles for Good Practice

Kütahya Dumlupınar University Abstract (11 Punto, 1,5 line spacing, align justify, before 6pt, after 6pt) The aim of this study was investigated the effects of applying a Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL) to the prospective primary school teachers in teaching the simple electrical circuits subject on the seven principles for good practice. This study used the three-group Solomon Experimental Design. The study participants were sophomore level prospective teachers from the Department of Primary School Teaching at a state university. The control group (CG) was applied close-ended experimental method, while the experimental groups (EG1 and EG2) was applied the PLTL. The data collection tool of the study was used “Seven Principles Opinion Scale for Good Practice” (SPOS) developed by Bishoff (2010). The SPOS was used for the pre-test of EG1 and CG, and for the post-test of EG1, EG2 and CG. According to the post-test, The experimental groups applying the PLTL were better than the control group in the “Encouraging Student-Faculty Contact”, “Encouraging Cooperation among Students”, “Respecting Diverse Talents/Ways of Learning”, “Encouraging Active Learning”, and “Giving Prompt Feedback” principles. The PLTL is effective in attaining the objectives of the seven principles for good practice. It is recommended that further studies on PLTL should be conducted in order to contribute to the relevant literature by investigating the teaching experience that leaders gain in applying the principles necessary for a good education.


Introduction
Today, instead of teaching and learning methods focused on providing uniform knowledge and skills in learning environments for quality education; students are actively involved in the process, open to all communication in the classroom atmosphere, and students are preferred to teaching and learning methods and approaches that help develop and demonstrate their own ideas and skills (Beyer, 2001;Prensky, 2008).
The Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL) is one of these new approaches.
PLTL was first introduced by Woodward, Gosser and Weiner (1993) as a social learning instrument to facilitate an active learning experience directed towards improving negotiation and creative problemsolving skills (Gosser, Roth, Gafney, Kampmeier, Strozak, Varma-Nelson & Weiner, 1996;Quitadamo, Brahler & Crouch, 2009). PLTL is currently being implemented as a structured form of the cooperative learning model. PLTL involves small teams composed of six to eight individuals who learn together, and these groups are led by peers who have already reached the determined objectives at an earlier time (Gosser & Roth, 1998;Tien, Roth & Kampmeier, 2004;Wilson & Varma-Nelson, 2016;Johnson, Robbins & Loui, 2015). Peer leaders can be individuals who have received previous training on the topic for which this method would be implemented or successful individuals, who have been trained on the academic topic in advance, from among the learners. The leaders fulfill the function of being a bridge between teachers and students and help them acquire higher order thinking skills, such as finding creative solutions to problems, increasing their motivation, increasing their class performances, and acquiring the ability to think critically and analytically (Quitadamo, Brahler & education (Şimşek, Aydoğdu & Doymuş, 2012). These seven principles include "Encouraging student faculty contact", "Encouraging cooperation among students", "Encouraging active learning", "Giving prompt feedback", "Emphasizing time on task", "Communicating high expectations", and "Respecting diverse talents/ways of learning" (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). These are among the education principles, which serve as a guide for teachers and students and contribute to a higher quality education by improving performance in education (Zorlu, Zorlu & Sezek, 2013). Applied comprehensively, these principles can especially be helpful in creating a good learning-teaching environment in undergraduate education (Chickering, 2000;Chickering & Gamson, 1987). According to Cousins (2012), conducting an education process in accordance with these seven principles creates positive perceptions and contributions. Moreover, applying these principles in the learning environments enables a more effective application of the teaching program by improving its effectiveness in action. Specifically, the current situation can be better understood through the feedback received after the application, and thereby more effective learning environments can be created.
The literature review showed that there were studies investigating the PLTL and STEM (Carlson, Celotta, Curran, Marcus & Loe, 2016;Reisel, Jablonski, Munson & Hosseini, 2014;Wilson & Varma-Nelson, 2016), with most of them focusing on their application in the courses of chemistry, physics, anatomy, biology, physiology, and mathematics and investigating their effect on student success (Baez-Galib, Colon-Cruz, Resto & Rubin, 2005;Finn & Campisi, 2005;Gosser, Strozak & Cracolice, 2006;Keenan, 2014;Peteroy-Kelly, 2007;Reisel, Jablonski, Munson & Hosseini, 2014;Snyder, Carter & Wiles, 2015). In general, the results of these studies showed that the model increased academic success. However, although the importance of PLTL has received more and more attention, there aren't studies the extent to which the model is effective on the seven principles for good practice in the PLTL. Based on literature, it is important to determine the most effective way to apply new methods to increase the qualifications in education.
The electricity has been an indispensable part of our lives today for computers that we use to charge our phone and wash laundry and dishes, not spoil our food, read as many books in the evenings, research or communicate (Kayacan, 2018;p 179). The electricity we use in most places in our daily lives has a different place in science subjects (Yılmaz & Eren, 2014). Given the location and importance of simple electrical circuits in daily life, it is necessary to know the subject effectively.
The subject of simple electrical circuits is a science subject that is further elaborated at each level of education after the basic is established at primary school level. In this context, in order for students to establish a good basic, the subject of primary school-level teachers needs to be trained qualified. In this context, in order for students to establish a good basic, the subject of primary schoollevel teachers needs to be trained qualified. The subject of simple electrical circuits is handled within the scope of the Science and Technology Applications course in the curriculum of primary school teacher. In this context this study was aimed to investigate the effects of applying the PLTL to the prospective primary school teachers in the subject of simple electrical circuits on the seven principles for good practice.

Research Question
Are there effects of applying the Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL) to the prospective primary school teachers in teaching the simple electrical circuits subject on the seven principles for good practice?

Research Design
The Solomon experimental design allows for deeper comparisons and protects studies' internal and external validity and, control for the effect of the pretest (Braver & Braver, 1988;Harwell, 2011;Karasar, 2016;Solomon & Lessac, 1968). The Solomon experimental design provides the opportunity to compare the effects of applying the PLTL aimed for this study on the seven principles for good practice with the experimental and control groups that were administered pretest and were not administered pretest, and to serve to reveal the results more validly and reliably. The design of the study was determined as the Solomon experimental design considering its features and benefits.
The Solomon experimental design requires at least three or four groups (Braver & Braver, 1988;Harwell, 2011;Karasar, 2016;Solomon & Lessac, 1968). This study was used the Solomon's three-group experimental design to aim at determining the impact of the PLTL on seven principles for good training was used in to minimize the impact of pretest applications and to conduct further analysis using two experimental groups. Thus, research problem are aimed at more valuable and reliable findings with the Solomon's experimental design. Two experimental groups and one control group were used to ensure strong internal validity and to control for the effect of the pretest (Figure 1).
The students were randomly assigned to the groups, which were designated as experimental group-1 (EG1), experimental group-2 (EG2), and control group (CG). "Seven Principles Opinion Scale for Good Practice" (SPOS) was administered to the EG1 and CG groups as pretest, while no pretest was Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 3, 2020 © 2020 INASED 253 administered to EG2. The control group (CG) was applied with the close-ended experimental method, while the experimental groups (EG1 and EG2) was applied the Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL). Seven Principles Opinion Scale for Good Practice (SPOS) was administered to find out the effects of the PLTL applying in teaching the simple electrical circuits on the seven principles for good practice by Gamson and Chickering ( Figure 1).

Application of Experimental and Control Groups
Within the scope of the study, 12 closed-ended experiments were used to the teaching of simple electrical circuits (Table 1) (Kesmez, 2011). The final forms of the experiments which were designed considering the subtopics were performed for five weeks in a laboratory environment as part of the Science and Technology Applications course (two class hours each week). Investigation of light intensity of lamps in connecting serial 7 Investigation of light intensity of lamps in connecting parallel 8 Investigation of light intensity of lamps in connecting mixed Fifth 9 Connecting serial of battery 10 Connecting parallel of battery 11 Connecting the same poles of two battery 12 Connecting parallel of two non-identical batteries Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 3, 2020 © 2020 INASED

Application of Experimental Groups (EG1 and EG2)
For the selection of those who would be leader students in the application, seven students who voluntarily agreed to take on this role were picked from among the students who had completed the Science and Technology Applications course the year before and had proven to be successful compared to their peer. After the leaders were designated, they received four hours of training. In the training, the leaders did to experiments for review of the topics after the leaders were given information about their tasks by the researchers. In this training, the leader was given feedback about the tasks and experiments by the researchers and the lack of the leaders were eliminated. The two experimental groups were placed into heterogeneous teams with 6-8 students each to the academic grade point averages. Three teams were formed in EG1 and four teams in EG2. A set of experiment equipment was provided for each team, along with one experiment worksheet. The teams conducted the experiments related to the topics with their leaders. The researcher's role in the course was to guide the students. The teams first consulted with their leaders on any issues they had, and if the leaders could not provide a solution, they then consulted the researcher. The researcher communicated with the teams after first communicating with the leaders. Following the completion of the experiments conducted each week, the teams selected at random informed other teams about their works. The selected experiments were conducted for five weeks. After the experiments, SPOS was administered to all the students, and the data were collected.

Application of Control Group (CG)
The close-ended experimental method was applied with the control group (CG). The teams at the control group were formed to by the students. A set of experiment equipment was provided for each team, along with one experiment worksheet. The students conducted the experiments with the teams. At the end of the experiment, they wrote the information they acquired and submitted it to the research. The researcher who participated in the study gave a presentation on the topic and the experiment to the teams, and answered any questions the prospective primary school teachers had to ensure that they had a clear understanding of everything presented. The experiments were conducted within five weeks. Afterwards, SPOS was administered to all the students, and the data were collected.

Study Group
Primary school is a sensitive and important level in terms of teaching science subjects (Yılmaz & Eren, 2014 Peer leaders took charge for the application in the experimental group of the study, and they are prospective primary school teachers who studied these subjects a year ago and successfully completed the course. The participants of this study were sophomore level prospective primary school teachers studying in the Department of Classroom Teaching at a state university. The prospective primary school teachers who participated in the study were in the age range 19-22. Before the study, the sophomore prospective primary school teachers were assigned to either the control group (CG) or one of the two experimental groups (EG-1 and EG-2). Experimental group 1 (EG-1) included 22 prospective primary school teachers, 8 of whom were male and 14 of whom were female, while experimental group 2 (EG-2) included 27 prospective primary school teachers, 10 of whom were male and 17 of whom were female. The control group (CG) included 23 prospective primary school teachers, 7 of whom were male and 16 of whom were female. The study included 7 leaders, 4 of whom were female and 3 of whom were male, and these leaders were prospective primary school teachers in their junior year.

Seven Principles Opinion Scale for Good Practice (SPOS)
Seven Principles for Good Practice were created by Chickering and Gamson (1987). Seven (2010)  terms of its conformity with the original version in English, and once the recommended revisions were made, the scale was finalized. SPOS uses a 5-point Likert-type scale including the responses, "very often", "often", "usually", "rarely", and "never".

Data Analysis
The statistical analysis of the research data was performed using the SPSS software. The independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed on the data.

Results
The SPOS (pre-test and post-test) was administered to the prospective primary school teachers after the application the Peer-Led Team Learning Instructional Model (PLTL). The findings obtained from the scale are given in Table 2. As seen from Table 2, to pre-test the mean scores of the students in EG1 were higher than the mean scores of the students in CG. To post-test, the mean scores of the students in EG1 and EG2 were higher than the mean scores of the students in CG. To tests whether this differences were statistically significant, analysis were carried out. The results of this analysis are shown in Table 3. to determine to which groups differences in these scores applied, and its results showed that the statistically significant difference was between EG1 and CG, and between EG2 and CG (p<.05). These results suggest that the views of the students in EG1 and EG2 on the seven principles for good practice were more positive than those of the students in CG. The effect size of the implemented model was found to be .15, which means that the implemented model explained 15% of the difference between the groups on the SPOS.
To further investigate the results, each factor of post-test was examined, for which the results are given in Tables 4-5.
Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 3, 2020 © 2020 INASED As can be seen in Table 4, the students in EG1 and EG2 had higher mean scores on the posttest compared to those of the students in CG. ANOVA was conducted to test whether these differences were statistically significant. The results of this analysis are given in Table 5. received help from their senior leaders in getting familiar with the lab, and they were successful in their efforts to overcome difficulties experienced while conducting the experiment or learning the subject of simple electric circuits. A significant difference was found in favour of the experimental group in the "Encouraging Cooperation among Students" principle, which shows that the quality of education experience improves if students cooperate while learning (Bishoff, 2010;Chickering, 2000;Chickering & Gamson, 1987). In PLTL, heterogeneous teams are formed according to the demonstrated achievement level of learning subjects, and each team has a leader (Gosser & Roth, 1998;Johnson, Robbins & Loui, 2015;Tien, Roth & Kampmeier, 2004;Wilson & Varma-Nelson, 2016). A set of experimental equipment was given to the teams to carry out the experiment. The study results showed that the positive commitment of the prospective teachers constituting the group had improved. Positive commitment is a characteristic that increases cooperation (Bayrakçeken, Doymuş & Doğan, 2013). It can be argued that due to the additional application carried out in the peer-led team experimental groups, the cooperation principle was satisfied. Significant differences were found in favour of the experimental groups for the "Respect Diverse Talents/Ways of Learning" principle, which suggests that there are differences in the learning styles of students, and that a higher quality education experience can be achieved with the methods carried out by taking these differences into consideration (Bishoff, 2010;Chickering, 2000;Chickering & Gamson, 1987). These differences were considered in the experimental groups because these groups consisted of heterogeneous teams, whose members learned the subject from each other and made a presentation together, and were guided by the leaders and the teacher in the process. The formation of heterogeneous teams is an indication that the prospective teachers' different skills were taken into consideration. In PLTL, students learn the subject through interaction with their peers on the team, while the leaders, who have different characteristics than the students, explain the materials, and in doing so, establish a connection with the students by understanding how they learn (Gosser & Roth, 1998). This role that the leaders play reflects the manner in which different learning styles interact together. From all these features, it can be asserted that the PLTL applied to the experimental group satisfied the "Respect Diverse Talents/Ways of Learning" principle.
Regarding the principles of "Encouraging Active Learning" and "Giving Prompt Feedback", there was a significant difference between EG2 and CG, and the prospective primary school teachers in EG2 were found to be more successful. According to Chickering and Gamson (1987), learners should discuss and write about what they have learned, relate what they have learned with their previous experiences, and adapt what they have learned to daily life in an active learning process. Peer leaders in the PLTL provide a supportive environment that enables the active participation of each student in the science learning process (Eberlein et. all, 2008). One of the aims of the methods employed in this study was to facilitate the prospective primary school teachers' active participation in courses. To achieve this, appropriate conditions were provided to allow the prospective primary school Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, V 15, N 3, 2020 © 2020 INASED teachers to conduct the aforementioned experiments together, and they were asked to write down the results of the experiment on the worksheet. In EG2, the teams conducted the experiment by learning from each other under the supervision of their leaders. Leaders participated in the application of the method to maintain the integrity of the team by ensuring that everyone participated. In other words, they served as a role model for their peers. The teacher served as a guide in the process and helped the students when needed.
The examination of the "Emphasizing Time on Task" principle showed that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of their application of this principle. Time planning is of critical importance in this principle. Effective time planning enables tasks to be carried out appropriately (Bishoff, 2010;Chickering, 2000;Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The method application process to be performed on the experimental and control groups was effectively planned in advance. Thanks to this planning, the prospective primary school teachers in the experimental and control groups were given the means and opportunity to perform their tasks within the process.
Results regarding adherence to the "Communicating High Expectations" principle showed that there was no significant difference between the groups. This principle refers to the need to have highlevel (accessible) goals, such as a high-level success or high-level thinking expectations (Bishoff, 2010;Chickering, 2000;Chickering & Gamson, 1987). Many studies showed that the PLTL is effective in helping students to acquire high-level thinking skills (Cracolice, 2005;Deming & Cracolice, 2005). However, the targets of a majority of the undergraduate students were to pass courses and complete their undergraduate education (Page & Mukherjee, 1998). Considering these characteristics of the prospective teachers, the effectiveness of the application carried out according to the PLTL on fulfill high-level accessible expectations could not be determined due to the prospective teachers' low expectations for achieving high-level success. In a study conducted by Graham, Cagiltay, Lim, Craner, and Duffy (2001) interesting homework was used to adapt subjects to real life circumstances in order to create high-level expectations. In modeling-based teaching, which is an active learning method, thought experiments are used for students to perform high-level thinking (Halloun, 2007;Ünal-Çoban, 2009;Zorlu & Sezek, 2019). Additions can be made by reviewing other applications shown by studies in the literature to foster high-level success and thinking expectations in PLTL and to contribute to a good educational process.
For a quality education seven principles for good practice proposed by Chickering and Gamson should be considered as a whole and included in applications. From a student's point of view, it can be challenging to discern the current century; therefore, peers can play an important role in bringing better understanding for students. Peers serving leadership roles can help teachers by taking an active part in the learning processes and facilitating greater social interaction through cooperation.
In this regard, selecting the right peer leaders and including them in applications can contribute to the