Effects of hands-on instruction on fifth grade students' attitudes and academic performance in science

Keywords

Academic achievement, Education, Elementary -- Activity programs, Science -- Study and teaching (Elementary)

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of a hands-on guided inquiry teaching method on students' attitudes toward and academic performance in science. A physical science unit that included chapters on energy and motion was used. A total of 16 fifth-grade students were part of the study. Two research questions guided this study: (1) "How does my emerging practice of using hands-on inquiry based learning affect my students' interest/attitudes in learning science?" and (2) "How does my emerging practice using hands-on inquiry based learning relate to student academic performance in science?" Research was conducted using qualitative and quantitative data. An analysis of qualitative data collected from a survey, focus group interviews, and field notes were used to determine the influence of hands-on inquiry based teaching on my students' interest/attitudes in learning science. Scores from unit pre/post-tests, chapter tests, and student science log were used as the quantitative data to measure the effectiveness of hands-on inquiry based teaching on my student's academic performance. Results from the study show that students' interests/attitudes increased with hands-on activities . Data for interest /attitudes were triangulated from a student survey, focus group interview and from researcher field notes. Scores triangulated from unit pre/post-test chapter tests and science log point to no change in academic performance in this group of student using hands-on inquiry learning in science.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2004

Degree

Master of Education (M.Ed.)

College

College of Education

Format

PDF

Pages

80 p.

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0029485

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education; Education -- Dissertations, Academic

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