The Effects of Teaching on 7th Grade Students’ Understanding of 'the Structures and Functions of Plants' Science Texts

• Main Authors: Chou,Wan-Chi, 周婉綺
• Other Authors: Yang, Wen-Gin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74198549896701020213

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 科學教育研究所在職進修碩士班 === 95 === The purposes of this study is to explore the features of Mandarin and the semantic implications of nominal groups of science texts, and to investigate the effects of science teaching on students’ understanding. A quasi-experimental design and qualitative interview are utilized in the present study; and the text of “the structures and functions of plants” is selected as target text, and an instrument of “Test of the Semantic understanding of Plants’ is developed accordingly. A total of 86 seventh-grade students participated in this study. Meanwhile, the episodes of teacher’s teaching were analyzed into “Topically Related Sets” (TRS) and “Thematic Patterns” (TP); students’ understanding is then interpreted by TRS and TP. Paired t-test, effect size, and McNemar tests are applied to analyze the quantitative data collected. Ten students who performed differently before and after the teaching were selected for in-depth interview. Major findings are as follows: (1)The features of Mandarin and the nominal groups deployed in the target texts impacted on the students understanding significantly. (2)Teaching did improve students’ understanding (Cohen's d=1.38). (3)The TRS and TP Analyses of teacher’s teaching provided bases for interpreting and explaining the interaction between science teaching and science learning. Based upon the findings of this study, implications on science teaching and teaching materials writing were discussed and the possibilities of further research were also suggested.