New methods and practices are constantly being introduced in education due to new research that emerges as a push for student achievement increases. We as teachers must adapt to these new ideas to ensure student success. This study was completed to determine if inquiry-based teaching methods would be more beneficial in learning Biology concepts than traditional lecture instruction. The students were divided into two groups, which differed based solely on their instructional format. The activities involved in this study included inquiry-based activities and traditional activities, i.e. PowerPoints, guided notes, experiments and worksheets. The participants in this study, students in a ninth grade Biology class, were given a pretest to assess prior knowledge of the unit on DNA that would be covered in the classroom lessons. The same assessment was also administered at the completion of the unit to measure leisure gain.
The instructional format of the material given showed an effect on learner outcomes. In general, there was a significant difference in the mean posttest scores. However, further analysis showed this difference was between honors students and academic students. When comparing unit test scores, inquiry students scores were significantly higher than the traditional lecture students. If inquiry activities are executed properly, implementing them into the Biology curriculum can increase learning gains of Biology topics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07102012-202739 |
| Date | 12 July 2012 |
| Creators | Branton, Rebecca |
| Contributors | Moreno, Juana, Browne, Dana, Slezak, Cyrill |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07102012-202739/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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