The impact of metacognitive practice and teacher feedback on academic achievement in mathematics

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of metacognitive strategies and content‐specific feedback on student achievement in high school mathematics. Participants consisted of a convenience sample of students in honors geometry. An analysis of variance with repeated measures was employed to address the research questions. For both the posttest and retention test, students in the experimental group significantly outperformed the students in the comparison group. However, students scored lower in the retention test than the posttest. The findings of this study offer a modest contribution to the body of empirical research on the impact of metacognitive practice and content‐specific feedback on academic achievement at the high school level.     

Peruvian Food Chain Jenga: Learning Ecosystems with an Interactive Model

A pilot study was conducted on a multimodal educational tool, Peruvian Food Chain Jenga (PFCJ), with 5th‐grade students (N = 54) at a public charter school. The goal was to compare the effectiveness of the multimodal tool to a more traditional presentation of the same materials (food chain) using an experimental/control design. Data collection included a pretest/posttest and a “What I Did/What I Learned” response sheet. Quantitative analysis of pretest/posttest results showed both groups improved from pretest to posttest; however, there was no statistically significant difference between posttest results of experimental and control groups. Qualitative analysis of student open‐ended responses indicated a difference between students who used the PFCJ and students in the control. The most striking difference occurred in how the students perceived the connectedness of species and the awareness of human impact. Our findings suggest that using a model such as PFCJ as a means of teaching and connecting scientific content with practices related to ecosystems is an effective method of engaging students in intelligent discussions about these topics.     

Effectiveness of Two Generative Learning Strategies in the Science Classroom

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of two generative learning strategies, concept mapping and laboratory experiments involving object manipulation, to determine if either one is more‐effective with individual learners or learning groups in a science classroom. Eighty sixth‐grade science‐students were randomly assigned to group or individual conditions and to one of two experimental treatments. Experimental treatments were changed between a first and second posttest. Long‐term retention was evaluated with a third, delayed posttest. Students starting with concept maps showed higher achievement on the delayed posttest than students beginning with the laboratory experiment. No difference was found between students working as individuals or in groups, but a significant interaction between generative learning strategy and grouping condition was revealed. Implications for sequencing generative learning strategies are discussed.     

The Teaching of General Solution Methods to Pattern Finding Problems Through Focusing on an Evaluation and Improvement Process

This study examined the effects of a teaching strategy in which fifth-grade students evaluated the strengths or weaknesses of solution methods to pattern finding problems. The experimental and control group each consisted of thirty four elementary students in Japan who took the pre, post and retention tests. The experimental group showed a significantly better performance on the retention test although no significant differences were observed on the pre and post tests. This result suggests that the evaluation and improvement activity was important as a teaching strategy.     

The Effects of Project‐Based Learning on Students' Academic Achievement,Attitude, and Retention of Knowledge: The Subject of “Electricity in Our Lives”

The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of project‐based learning on students' academic achievement, attitude, and retention of knowledge in relation to the subject of “Electricity in Our Lives” in a fourth‐grade science course. The study was conducted in a quasi‐experimental design as a “pre‐test, post‐test with control group.” In the experimental group, the unit was taught through the project‐based learning method. The measuring tools were administered to both groups before and after the applications. To perfectly analyze the “process” of the method, seven different learning assessment “forms” were administered to the students. The findings of the forms indicated that the students learn to construct their own learning and to evaluate changes in their own behavior through the application of the method. The application of different methods between both groups had a statistically significant effect in terms of academic achievement, (F(1,112) = 46.78, p = .000) and of retention of knowledge (F(1,112) = 35.24, p = .000). However, there were no statistically significant effects from being in different groups for the attitudes of students (F(1,112) = .99, p = .321). For the students, being in the project‐based learning groups resulted in better academic achievement and retention of knowledge than being in the traditional teaching group.     

Assessing the Impact of Bridging Analogies in Mechanics

The effects of bridging analogies teaching strategy and gender on Turkish high school students' misconceptions in mechanics were investigated. After a pilot study with 67 students in a nearby high school, the researchers administered the revised Mechanics Misconception Test to 119 high school students as a pretest. Students in the experimental group were instructed by using bridging analogies teaching strategy. At the end of a 3‐week treatment period, the same test was administered to all students as a posttest. The data were analyzed by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The statistical results showed that bridging analogies teaching strategy was an effective means of reducing the number of misconceptions students held about normal forces, frictional forces, tension, gravity, inertia, and Newton's third law.     

High school students' use of representations in physics problem solving

Findings from physics education research strongly point to the critical need for teachers’ use of multiple representations in their instructional practices such as pictures, diagrams, written explanations, and mathematical expressions to enhance students' problem‐solving ability. In this study, we explored use of problem‐solving tasks for generating multiple representations as a scaffolding strategy in a high school modeling physics class. Through problem‐solving cognitive interviews with students, we investigated how a group of students responded to the tasks and how their use of such strategies affected their problem‐solving performance and use of representations as compared to students who did not receive explicit, scaffolded guidance to generate representations in solving similar problems. Aggregated data on students' problem‐solving performance and use of representations were collected from a set of 14 mechanics problems and triangulated with cognitive interviews. A higher percentage of students from the scaffolding group constructed visual representations in their problem‐solving solutions, while their use of other representations and problem‐solving performance did not differ with that of the comparison group. In addition, interviews revealed that students did not think that writing down physics concepts was necessary despite being encouraged to do so as a support strategy.     

The Effectiveness of Process‐Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning to Reduce Alternative Conceptions in Secondary Chemistry

A nonequivalent, control group design was used to investigate student achievement in secondary chemistry. This study investigated the effect of process‐oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in high school chemistry to reduce alternate conceptions related to the particulate nature of matter versus traditional lecture pedagogy. Data were collected from chemistry students in four large high schools and were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results show that POGIL pedagogy, as opposed to traditional lecture pedagogy, resulted in fewer alternate conceptions related to the particulate nature of matter. Male and female students in the POGIL group posted better posttest scores than their traditional group peers. African‐American and Hispanic students in the POGIL group exhibited achievement gains consistent with Caucasian and Asian students. Further studies are needed to determine the value of POGIL to address achievement gap concerns in chemistry.     

The Effectiveness of Schoolyards as Sites for Elementary Science Instruction

This study compared the impacts of traditional classroom and outdoor schoolyard instruction on the environmental science content knowledge and attitudes of 285 third‐ and fourth‐grade students. A modified Solomon Four Group design, including control, classroom treatment, and schoolyard treatment groups, was used. Both the indoor classroom and outdoor schoolyard treatments consisted of corresponding 10‐day units focusing on plant and animal ecology. Valid and reliable content knowledge and attitude assessments were administered before and after instruction. Analyses of variance and post hoc analyses of posttest scores and gain scores indicated that elementary students learned significantly more about selected environmental science topics through outdoor schoolyard experiences than through traditional indoor classroom experiences. Both classroom and schoolyard treatment groups developed more positive environmental attitudes as a result of instruction, but the attitude posttest and gain scores of these two groups were not significantly different from each other.     

A Comparison of Concrete and Virtual Manipulative Use in Third‐ and Fourth‐Grade Mathematics

The primary purpose of this classroom experiment was to examine the effectiveness of concrete (hands‐on) manipulatives as compared with virtual (computer‐based) manipulatives on student review of fraction concepts in third grade and introduction of symmetry concepts in fourth grade. A pretest–posttest design was employed with a sample of 91 third‐grade students and 54 fourth‐grade students who were randomly assigned to complete a lesson using either concrete or virtual manipulatives. Students used a variety of manipulative materials during the lessons. Results of the posttest suggest that student learning was unchanged by lesson condition.     

The Effects on Students' Cognitive Achievement When Using the Cooperative Learning Method in Earth Science Classrooms

This study investigated the effects of cooperative learning instruction versus traditional teaching methods on students' earth science achievement in secondary schools. A total of 770 ninth-grade students enrolled in 20 sections of a required earth science course participated in this nonequivalent control group quasi-experiment. The control groups (n= 10) received a traditional approach, while the experimental groups (n= 10) used cooperative strategies. Study results include (a) no significant differences were found between the experimental groups and the control groups when overall achievement (F= 0.13, p > .05), knowledge-level (F= 0.12, p > .05), and comprehension-level (F= 0.34, p > .05) test items were considered; and (b) students who worked cooperatively performed significantly better than students who worked alone on the application-level test items (F= 4.63, p < .05). These findings suggest that cooperative-learning strategies favor students' earth science performance at higher but not lower levels of cognitive domains in the secondary schools.     

Inquiry Learning of High School Students Through a Problem‐Based Environmental Health Science Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which high school students improved their inquiry capabilities in relation to scientific literacy through their experience of a problem‐based environmental health science curriculum. The two inquiry capabilities studied were scientific questioning and approaches to inquiry into their own questions. A total of 129 high school students taught by two teachers in one school wrote responses to environmental health issues at the beginning and at the end of a 10‐week long inquiry curriculum. An additional group of 46 students of one of the two teachers learned an alternative curriculum and participated as a comparison group. The students using the inquiry curriculum performed significantly better than those using the alternative curriculum in posing active inquiry questions and generating hypothesis‐driven approaches to inquiry into their questions. The inquiry curriculum students also improved significantly from the pretest to the posttest in both measures of inquiry capacity. Among the students who were less prepared for inquiry in the beginning, 68% improved inquiry‐questioning capability, while among the students who were more prepared for inquiry, 36% improved in generating hypotheses‐driven approaches. Implications for curriculum design and implementation were provided along with further research suggestions.     

The Influence of Mind Mapping on Eighth Graders’ Science Achievement

This study assessed the influence of using mind maps as a learning tool on eighth graders’ science achievement, whether such influence was mediated by students’ prior scholastic achievement, and the relationship between students’ mind maps and their conceptual understandings. Sixty‐two students enrolled in four intact sections of a grade 8 science classroom were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison conditions. Participants in the experimental group received training in, and constructed, mind maps throughout a science unit. Engagement with mind mapping was counterbalanced with involving the comparison group participants with note summarization to control for time on task as a confounding variable. Otherwise, the intervention was similar for both groups in all respects. A multiple choice test was used to measure student gains across two categories and three levels of achievement. Data analyses indicated that the experimental group participants achieved statistically significant and substantially higher gains than students in the comparison group. The gains were not mediated by participants’ prior scholastic achievement. Analyses also indicated that iconography was not as central to participants’ mind maps as often theorized. Depicting accurate links between central themes and major and minor concepts, and using colors to represent concepts were the major aspects that differentiated the mind maps built by students who achieved higher levels of conceptual understanding.     

Using Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes to Teach Human Body Systems

This study compares the use of form and function analogy object boxes to more traditional lecture and worksheet instruction during a 10th‐grade unit on human body systems. The study was conducted with two classes (N= 32) of mixed ability students at a high‐needs rural high school in central New York State. The study used a pretest/posttest design, in which the two classes alternated between conditions for the four systems (skeletal, digestive, immune, nervous). Both conditions involved students in quality instruction addressing the same concepts for the same amount of time. Additionally, all students participated in hands‐on labs. The experimental condition presented students with a set of objects analogous in form and function to parts of a human body system. Students matched objects with cards describing body system parts, mapped the analogies on a chart, generated alternative objects that could be used for the analogy, and finally, created new analogies for other body system parts. Students made significantly higher posttest and gain scores on material learned in the experimental condition, with a mean gain score average of 12.4 points out of 25, compared to 6.2 points in the control condition. Cohen's Effect Size was large, 1.36.     

Academic achievement with cooperative learning using homogeneous and heterogeneous groups

Cooperative learning is a proven teaching strategy that teachers have been using for over 40 years. Teachers often group students heterogeneously so that students who are lower achieving are learning with and from higher achieving students. The purpose of this study was to test homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping while using cooperative learning teaching structure. This study aimed to answer the question of whether students be grouped homogeneously or heterogeneously while participating in cooperative learning. The primary research design for this study was a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control-group design. A convenience sample of fifth-grade students was drawn from a Georgia elementary school in the 2017–2018 school year. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and paired samples t tests. The ANCOVA was run to compare the scores from the FOSS Survey/Posttest, and the analysis showed no significant difference between the homogeneous and heterogeneous group posttest scores. Both groups made significant gains (as shown by the results of the paired samples t-tests).     

The Effects of a STEM Intervention on Elementary Students' Science Knowledge and Skills

The purpose of the study was to assess elementary students' science process skills, content knowledge, and concept knowledge after one year of participation in an elementary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program. This study documented the effects of the combination of intensive professional development and the use of inquiry‐based science instruction in the elementary classroom, including the benefits of using rigorous science curriculum with general education students. The results of the study revealed a statistically significant gain in science process skills, science concepts, and science‐content knowledge by general education students in the experimental group when compared with students in the comparison group. Moreover, teacher participation in the STEM program had a statistically significant impact on students' variability in posttest scores. These interim student performance data support the implementation of rigorous differentiated science curriculum focused on improving science concept, content knowledge, and process skills.     

Student Strategy Choices on a Constructed Response Algebra Problem

A central goal of secondary mathematics is for students to learn to use powerful algebraic strategies appropriately. Research has demonstrated student difficulties in the transition to using such strategies. We examined strategies used by several thousand 8th‐, 9th‐, and 10th‐grade students in five different school systems over three consecutive years on the same algebra problem. We also analyzed connections between their strategies and their success on the problem. Our findings suggest that many students continued to struggle with algebraic problems, even after several years of instruction in algebra. Students did not reflect the anticipated growth toward the consistent use of efficient strategies deemed appropriate in solving this problem. Instead a surprisingly large number of students continued to rely on strategies such as guessing and checking, or offered solutions that were unintelligible or meaningless and not useful to the researchers. Even those students who used algebraic strategies consistently did not show the anticipated improvement of performance that would be expected from several years of continuing to study mathematics.