| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立師範學院 === 科學教育研究所 === 90 === The purposes of this study were as follows: (1) to investigate the influences of different teaching methods (problem-based and cooperative learning vs. traditional) on science concept comprehension, science-related attitude, and problem solving ability. (2) to investigate the relationship between teaching methods and the analytical skill of students. (3) to investigate the children’s attitude toward problem-based and cooperative learning instruction for curriculum development in the future.
The design of this research was a quasi-experiment with Solomon four-group design. The subjects in this study were the fifth graders at an Elementary School in Taipei. The teaching term took sixteen periods (forty minutes per period). The curriculum contained two topics, “acid and base”, and “Taiwan’s climate”. Experimental treatments were teaching method. The research tools utilized in the study were “ Science Concept Comprehension Test (SCCT), Science-related Attitudes Scale (SRAS), Problem Solving Ability Test (PSAT) and Questionnaire on the Attitude toward Science Teaching (QAST)”. A pretest administered before the experimental treatment and a posttest was held after the treatment. The data of SCCT, SRAS, and PSAT collected from pretest and posttest were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. Responses from the QAST were analyzed by ANOVA.
The results of Science Concept Comprehension were as follows: (1) there were significant differences in science concepts, the problem-based and cooperative learning group got higher score than those the traditional group did. (2) For high, middle and low analytical ability students, the problem-based and cooperative learning group achieved higher score as well.
In regard of Science-related Attitudes and problem solving ability, the results showed that: (1) there was remarkable distinction between two different teaching methods, the problem-based and cooperative learning group obtained higher score than those the traditional group did. (2) As to high, middle and low analytical ability students, the problem-based and cooperative learning group performed positively than the traditional group in science related attitudes. However, in problem solving ability, it showed a more positive attitude from the high analytical ability students applying the problem-based and cooperative learning method while it made no distinction to middle and low analytical ability students no matter which teaching method was applied. Moreover, the posttest performance is correlative to pretest experience for all groups of students.
As to the Attitude toward Science Teaching, the results were as follows: the problem-based and cooperative learning group showed positive attitudes from overall responses of the test. The possible cause indicated from the distribution of overall responses was both of the problem-based and cooperative learning group and the traditional group toward this teaching method, however, the students with a larger proportion in the problem-based and cooperative learning group possess highly positive attitude while the ones in traditional group possessed lower positive attitude.
The attitude of the problem-based and cooperative learning group was positive from the qualitative analysis as well. Part of the students acknowledged that the teaching activities in the testing period enhanced their problem solving skill and provided an opportunity to think and find out the solution. As indicated in the teaching daily records, the students highly participated in the class activity applying problem-based and cooperative learning. Therefore, enhancing the science applied in the course of Science does promote the students’ learning interests and attitude and was very helpful to their study of Science. The researcher concluded that the instruction of problem-based and cooperative learning had positive effect on enhancing the science concept comprehension, the science-related attitude and problem solving ability.
|
|---|
