Effects of traditional and discovery instructional approaches on learning outcomes for learners of different intellectual development: A study of chemistry students in Zambia

This study examined the differential effectiveness of traditional and discovery methods of instruction for the teaching of science concepts, understandings about science, and scientific attitudes, to learners at the concrete and formal level of cognitive development. The dependent variables were achievement, understanding science, and scientific attitude; assessed through the use of the ACS Achievement Test (high school chemistry, Form 1979), the Test on Understanding Science (Form W), and the Test on Scientific Attitude, respectively. Mode of instruction and cognitive development were the independent variables. Subjects were 120 Form IV (11th grade) males enrolled in chemistry classes in Lusaka, Zambia. Sixty of these were concrete reasoners (mean age = 18.23) randomly selected from one of the two schools. The remaining 60 subjects were formal reasoners (mean age 18.06) randomly selected from a second boys' school. Each of these two groups was randomly split into two subgroups with 30 subjects. Traditional and discovery approaches were randomly assigned to the two subgroups of concrete reasoners and to the two subgroups of formal reasoners. Prior to instruction, the subjects were pretested using the ACS Achievement Test, the Test on Understanding Science, and the Test on Scientific Attitude. Subjects received instruction covering eight chemistry topics during approximately 10 weeks. Posttests followed using the same standard tests. Two-way analysis of covariance, with pretest scores serving as covariates was used and 0.05 level of significant was accepted. Tukey WSD technique was used as a follow-up test where applicable. It was found that (1) for the formal reasoners, the discovery group earned significantly higher understanding science scores than the traditional group. For the concrete reasoners mode of instruction did not make a difference; (2) overall, formal reasoners earned significantly higher achievement scores than concrete reasoners; (3) in general, subjects taught by the discovery approach earned significantly higher scientific attitude scores than those taught by the traditional approach. The traditional group outperformed the discovery group in achievement scores. It was concluded that the traditional approach might be an efficient instructional mode for the teaching of scientific facts and principles to high school students, while the discovery approach seemed to be more suitable for teaching scientific attitudes and for promoting understanding about science and scientists among formal operational learners.     

Building an organized knowledge base: Concept mapping and achievement in secondary school physics

Direct teaching of problem-solving methods to high school physics students met with little success. Expert problem solving depended upon an organized knowledge base. Concept mapping was found to be a key to organizing an effective knowledge base. The investigation of the effect of the degree of concept mapping on achievement was the purpose of this study. Six intact high school physics classes, taught by this investigator, took part in the study. Two classes were control groups and received standard instruction. Four classes received six weeks of concept-mapping instruction prior to the unit under study. Two of these four classes were the low-level treatment group and were required to submit concept maps at the conclusion of the instruction. The other two classes were the high-level treatment group and were required to submit concept maps at the beginning and at the conclusion of the unit under study. One class from each treatment group took a pretest prior to instruction. An analysis of the posttest results revealed no pretest sensitization. A one-way analysis of covariance indicated a significant main effect for the treatment level at the p < 0.05 level. A pair of single-df comparisons of the adjusted treatment means resulted in significant differences (p < 0.05) between the control group and the average of the treatment means as well as between the two experimental groups. It can be concluded that for this sample (upper-middle-class high school physics students) mapping concepts prior to, during, and subsequent to instruction led to greater achievement as measured by posttest scores.     

The ability of children to generalize selected science concepts

The study investigated the ability of primary and elementary school subjects to generalize two science concepts, Insect and Animal with and without instruction in the form of a mental set. It also examined the effects of age, IQ, and sex on the ability of the children to generalize these concepts. Two instruments measuring the ability to generalize the concepts Insect and Animal were developed. The results indicate that of the independent variables investigated, age and mental set significantly affected the ability to generalize the concepts Insect and Animal. It was found that the younger children's concepts were least developed and with age these concepts became more developed and more conceptual in nature. The ability to use information given in a mental set was found to be a function of age. The children in this study were more able to generalize the concept Insect than the concept Animal. The results suggest that children with age and instruction axe better able to master less general concepts than more geaeral ones. In addition, the study demonstrated that children are able to improve their learning of general concepts provided a great number and variety of instances and noninstances of the concept are used in the instruction. It was also found that the younger children were more perceptually bound than the older children. The younger children were unable to overcome the pull of perceptual attractiveness that the noninstances held for them despite instruction. The results suggest that teachers of such children should be aware of the conceptual level of the content being taught to such children to ensure appropriate and meaningful learning takes place.     

The effect of labels and instruction on concept attainment in the educable mentally retarded

The present experiment examined concept attainment in 80 educable mentally retarded and 80 normal boys of high and low mental age. The concept of an equilateral triangle was assessed following random exposure to one of four experimental conditions assessing the influence of verbal labels and instruction on the labels. A 2 × 2 × 4 multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of mental age; however, retarded and normal subjects did not differ in mean performance on any of the five dependent measures. The hypothesized treatment effect was significant at the formal level of concept attainment. The findings were discussed in terms of theoretical and educational implications.     

A Tiered Intervention Model for Early Vocabulary Instruction: The Effects of Tiered Instruction for Young Students At Risk for Reading Disability

Vocabulary knowledge at school entry is a robust predictor of later reading achievement. Many children begin formal reading instruction at a significant disadvantage due to low levels of vocabulary. Until recently, relatively few research studies examined the efficacy of vocabulary interventions for children in the early primary grades (e.g., before fourth grade), and even fewer addressed vocabulary intervention for students at increased risk for reading failure. In more recent work, researchers have begun to explore ways in which to diminish the “meaningful differences” in language achievement noted among children as they enter formal schooling. This article provides a review of a particularly effective model of vocabulary intervention based on shared storybook reading and situates this model in a context of tiered intervention, an emerging model of instructional design in the field of special education. In addition, we describe a quasi‐experimental posttest‐only study that examines the feasibility and effectiveness of the model for first‐grade students. Participants were 224 first‐grade students of whom 98 were identified as at risk for reading disability based on low levels of vocabulary. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences on measures of target vocabulary knowledge at the receptive and context level, suggesting that students at risk for reading failure benefit significantly from a second tier of vocabulary instruction. Implications for classroom practice as well as future research are provided.     

The Relationship between Self Concept and Academic Achievement

It was hypothesized that children, both white and Negro, attending a de facto segregated school have less positive self concepts than do children attending desegregated schools, and that there is a significant positive relationship between self concept and academic achievement. Sixty children from the intermediate grades of each of the elementary schools in a small city in northern New Jersey were matched on the basis of age, grade, ex, race, intelligence, and socio-economic status. Analyses of variance were computed on the scores obtained rom the self-report instrument administered and correlations between these scores and achievement scores were alculated. It was found that children attending the de facto segregated school had less positive self concepts. There was also a significant positive relationship between self concept and academic achievement. That is, those children having more positive self concepts had higher academic achievement.     

Learning Electricity in Elementary School

The study investigated elementary school pupils' ideas concerning the concept of electricity and the effect of school instruction on the pupil's views. Pupils of different cultural backgrounds were assessed to ascertain their knowledge in four areas: Relation of certain natural phenomena to electricity; Mental models (images) of direct current in a circuit; Images possessed regarding electricity and electric current. Pupils' ideas were investigated before and after instruction, thus providing information about the effect of instruction on the views of pupils. In construct to the previous findings, certain phenomena (lightning and thunder among them) were related by the pupils to electricity even before those were taught. Evidently, the instruction changed the mental models and images of electricity and electric current.     

Teaching Ecosystems and Matter Cycles with Creative Drama Activities

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of creative drama-based instruction on seventh graders’ science achievements in the ecology and matter cycles unit and their attitudes toward science. The study is an experimental study carried out in one of the public elementary schools in Turkey during 2005–2006 schooling year. An ecological concept achievement test was developed and administered to 45 students in two classes (as control and experimental group) of an elementary school before and after the treatment. The experimental group received creative drama-based instruction and the control group received traditional instruction. A guiding instruction material which contains six lesson plans in the subject was constructed for the teacher to administer creative drama-based instruction. The topics of ecosystems and matter cycles were taught to the both of groups for 3 weeks. A science attitude test was administered to both groups before and after the treatment. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the both groups with respect to achievement in the ecology concepts and median of the attitudes toward science in favour of the experimental group after the treatment.     

A comparison of concrete and formal science instruction upon science achievement and reasoning ability of sixth grade students

Several recent studies suggest concrete learners make greater gains in student achievement and in cognitive development when receiving concrete instruction than when receiving formal instruction. This study examined the effect of concrete and formal instruction upon reasoning and science achievement of sixth grade students. Four intact classes of sixth grade students were randomly selected into two treatment groups; concrete and formal. The treatments were patterned after the operational definitions published by Schneider and Renner (1980). Pretest and posttest measures were taken on the two dependent variables; reasoning, measured with Lawson's Classroom Test of Formal Reasoning, and science achievement, measured with seven teacher made tests covering the following units in a sixth grade general science curriculum: Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Cells, Plants, Animals, and Ecology. Analysis of covariance indicated significantly higher levels (better than 0.05 and in some cases 0.01) of performance in science achievement and cognitive development favoring the concrete instruction group and a significant gender effect favoring males.     

Concept mapping,vee mapping,and achievement: Results of a field study with black high school students

This article reports on the results of a project that studied the effectiveness of two specific learning heuristics, concept mapping and Vee mapping, in helping black, inner-city, high school students learn biology concepts meaningfully. The project sought to assess the effects on achievement of the use of these two heuristics as part of a carefully designed sequence of instruction. Two instructional treatments were compared, one that utilized the two experimental heuristics as study aids and one that utilized outlining as a comparison study aid. The instructional treatments were administered over approximately a one semester period. Two hundred and fifty subjects, nearly all black, from two urban high schools in Indiana took part in the study. Achievement instruments designed to measure meaningful (higher order) learning were developed. Analysis of variance of the achievement test means failed to reveal statistically significant differences between the experimental and comparison treatment at the 0.05 alpha level. However, there were suggestions of a tendency toward an effect of the experimental treatment, and several factors contributing to the difficulty in distinguishing achievement differences were identified.     

Facilitating conceptual change in ninth grade students’ understanding of human circulatory system concepts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the conceptual change text oriented instruction over traditionally designed instruction on ninth grade students’ understanding of the human circulatory system concepts, and their retention of this understanding. The subjects of this study consist of 73 ninth grade female students from two classes of a basic school in Jordan. One of the classes was randomly assigned as an experimental group in which conceptual change text oriented instruction was implemented, and the other class was randomly assigned as a control group in which students were instructed by traditionally designed biology instruction. Results showed that students exposed to conceptual change oriented instruction had better understanding of the human circulatory system concepts than those exposed to traditional instruction. The results also showed that the conceptual change text oriented instruction was significantly better than the traditional instruction in retention of this understanding.     

Schulfächer: Vermittlungsinstanzen von Bildung

The concept of “Bildung”, substantially developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt, and the French concept of “instruction”, substantially defined by the Marquis de Condorcet, have heavily influenced schools in German and French speaking cultures. School subjects as the general principles of ordering school knowledge prevail as soon as Bildung/instruction becomes granted by state institutions. I maintain that school subjects are the socio-historical form of the modern school system, through which Bildung/instruction continually develops in contradictory ways. On the basis of a concise definition of “Bildung”, mirrored by the contemporaneous concept of French “instruction”, the paper shows that school subjects become the common form and measure for organizing and distributing knowledge and know how to be taught and learned during the 19th century. Four theses are discussed concerning the way school subjects realize the ideals of Bildung in many contradictory forms: 1. The canon of school subjects guarantee manifold contents for developing capacities for students, in part through a realization of Humboldt’s and Condorcet’s concepts. 2. They integrate contradictory demands of society: Bildung, moralization in the sense of “governing the soul” on the one side, national cohesion, selection and distinction between students on the other. 3. They allow contents coming from higher education levels to enter primary schools. 4. They combine universal contents with local and regional ones.     

Concept Learning and Concept Teaching

This article presents a theory of concept learning and development and a design for teaching concepts. It gives an overview of 30 years of programmatic research that eventuated in the initial formulation of the theory and the design and in subsequent refinements. The last refinement is presented in this article. The principles of learning incorporated in the theory are based on classroom experiments that identified the variables that facilitate concept learning at each of four successively higher levels of understanding: concrete, identity, classificatory, and formal. The development aspect of the theory indicates that individuals progress from one level to the next as they become capable of carrying out various mental processes. Both normative conceptual development during the school years, grades 1 to 12, and individual differences in the rate of development are identified. Principles for teaching concepts that take into account the learning and development aspects of the theory follow. The article closes with an indication of the powerful effects of focused concept instruction, preschool through college.     

Measuring teachers’ content knowledge of language and reading

In the context of a longitudinal, four-year study of reading instruction in low-performing, high-poverty urban schools, we surveyed teacher knowledge of reading-related concepts, and established a modest predictive relationship between teachers’ knowledge, classroom reading achievement levels, and teachers’ observed teaching competence. There were significant associations among these variables at the third and fourth grade levels. To obtain this result, measures of teacher content knowledge in language and reading were refined in a three-stage process. Our purpose was to explore the type and level of questions that would begin to discriminate more capable from less capable teachers, and that would have a predictive relationship with student reading achievement outcomes. After experimenting with measurement of K-2 teachers’ content knowledge (Form #1), we piloted a Teacher Knowledge Survey with 41 second and third grade teachers in one study site (Form #2). We then refined and expanded the Survey (Form #3) and administered it to 103 third and fourth grade teachers in both project sites. Teachers’ misconceptions about sounds, words, sentences, and principles of instruction were pinpointed so that professional development could address teachers’ needs for insight and information about language structure and student learning.     

Performance‐approach goals,task‐avoidant behaviour and conceptual knowledge as predictors of first graders’ school performance

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children’s performance‐approach goal orientation, task‐avoidant behaviours, conceptual knowledge and their achievement in maths and literacy. The sample consisted of 174 first grade children and their class teachers. Children’s self reports of their performance‐approach goals and avoidant behaviours as well as teacher‐reports of children’s avoidant behaviours were used. Our results indicate that performance‐approach goal orientation positively predicts children’s self‐reported task‐avoidant behaviours which in turn have a negative effect on children’s achievement outcomes. The negative effect of teacher‐rated avoidant behaviours on children’s achievement outcomes was even greater than the positive influence of children’s conceptual knowledge. These results suggest that the relationships between goal‐orientations, achievement behaviours and achievement outcomes start to form early in children’s school career (or even before that) and that children’s self‐report of their achievement goals and behaviours provide a valuable knowledge already in this early age.     

The Role of Mediators in the Development of Longitudinal Mathematics Achievement Associations

Despite research demonstrating a strong association between early and later mathematics achievement, few studies have investigated mediators of this association. Using longitudinal data (n = 1,362), this study tested the extent to which mathematics self‐concepts, school placement, executive functioning, and proficiency in fractions and division account for the association between mathematics achievement in first grade and at age 15. As hypothesized, a strong longitudinal association between first‐grade and adolescent mathematics achievement was present (β = .36) even after controlling for a host of background characteristics, including cognitive skills and reading ability. The mediators accounted for 39% of this association, with mathematics self‐concept, gifted and talented placement, and knowledge of fractions and division serving as significant mediators.     

Using a digital game as an advance organizer

The use of digital games as an instructional tool has garnered increasing attention in the education community. Empirical work supported by theory on the learning affordances of digital games allowed the game-based learning community to arrive at the consensus that digital games provide an excellent medium for the acquisition of skills and the exploration of concepts. The field, however, lacks research on how best to teach with games. For example, an unanswered question is whether gameplay should take place before instruction, after instruction, or integrated throughout in order to maximize the effectiveness of the game. To answer this question, a study was conducted with 103 middle school students who either played a digital game designed to teach algebraic concepts before receiving formal instruction, received formal instruction before playing the game, or received formal instruction intermittently during their gameplay session. The results indicate while on average all participants showed improvement in terms of learning, those who played the game before receiving instruction showed significant improvement. These results provide evidence supporting the theory that games are effective when used as an advanced organization tool.     

What It Takes for Preschoolers to Learn Sex Abuse Prevention Concepts

We sought to determine why preschoolers struggle to learn abuse prevention concepts that children only a few years older learn easily. We pretested preschoolers' knowledge of sexual abuse prevention, observed them viewing a widely-used sexual abuse prevention program, then post-tested their abuse prevention knowledge. We micro-measured comprehension of specific prevention concepts during instruction in order to compare failures of comprehension with failures of retention and/or application. We also tested the effectiveness of guided participation with an adult co-viewer as a technique for improving children's comprehension of the material. Although subjects watched 50% of the program, they comprehended only 30%. Viewing did not significantly increase their knowledge. Likewise, the presence of an active adult co-viewer did not increase comprehension of abuse prevention concepts. We identified four audio/visual production features that accounted for 59% of subjects' visual attention. Attention predicted comprehension. Comprehension of advanced concepts was predicated upon comprehension of simpler ones. If subjects failed to comprehend a basic concept, they were significantly less likely to attend to or comprehend more advanced concepts. Preschoolers need sexual abuse prevention programs produced specifically for them. Research should focus on programs that (1) are developmentally graduated, (2) present concepts in a logical order and then seek to ensure that subjects comprehend the concept before moving on, and (3) use audio/visual production features that recruit and maintain visual attention.     

Effectiveness of instruction based on the constructivist approach on understanding chemical equilibrium concepts

The purpose of this study was to identify misconceptions concerning chemical equilibrium concepts and to investigate the effectiveness of instruction based on the constructivist approach over traditional instruction on 10th grade students' understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts. The subjects of this study consisted of 71 10th grade students from two chemistry classes of the same teacher. Each teaching strategy was randomly assigned to one class. The data were obtained from 32 students in the experimental group taught with instruction informed by the constructivist approach and 39 students in the control group taught with traditional instruction. The data were analysed using analysis of covariance. The results indicated that the students who used the constructivist principles-oriented instruction earned significantly higher scores than those taught by traditional instruction in terms of achievement related to chemical equilibrium concepts. In addition, students' previous learning and science process skills each made a significant contribution to the achievement related to chemical equilibrium concepts. In light of the findings obtained from the results, an additional misconception of chemical equilibrium concepts was determined in addition to the misconceptions in related literature. This misconception is that when one of the reactants is added to the equilibrium system, the concentration of the substance that was added will decrease below its value at the initial equilibrium.