The effect of demonstrations and activities on the students' attitude towards chemistry and their achievement in middle school. (c2007)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of the combination of lecture, teacher demonstrations, class discussion and student practical/experimental work improves the experimental students' attitudes towards studying chemistry, their understanding of chemistry concepts and as a result their achievement in chemistry more than the control group students who were only exposed to lecture and not to the teacher demonstrations and the practical work. The students' attitudes were surveyed using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was answered by 38 randomly selected grade eight students before and after the research period. Six students of those with largest attitude changes, both positive and negative, were interviewed to highlight the contrast between students. The students' results were collected from tests made at the closure of each concept during the research period. Another questionnaire was given to chemistry teachers in three randomly selected official and private schools to check the teaching methods they are using, their own views about the attitude and the achievement of their students. Students in the experimental group showed a positive attitude change that was associated with evidence of motivated behavior towards chemistry, while students in the control group showed a negative attitude and less motivation towards studying chemistry. In addition, the students' achievements in the experimental group were higher than those of the control group.