Effects of Advance Organizers on Students’ Achievement in Biology in Secondary Schools in Kilifi County, Kenya

This study investigated the effects of using advance organizers on students’ achievement in biology in secondary schools in Kilifi County. Solomon Four, Non-Equivalent control group design was used in this study. The study targeted all secondary school students in Kilifi County. The accessible population consisted of all form two students in Kilifi County. Purposive sampling was used to select four co-educational secondary schools in Kilifi County. The four schools were randomly assigned to experimental groups (E1) and (E2) and control groups C1 and C2. A total of 156 students participated in the study. Data was collected using Biology Achievement Test (BAT). The reliability of BAT was estimated using Kuder-Richardson (K-R) 20 and Cronbach’s coefficient. This yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.82 and 0.79 respectively. BAT was validated by experts in science education from Egerton University. The data collected was analyzed using mean, one-way ANOVA and t-test. The level of significance was 0.05. The findings of this study show that there was statistically significant difference in achievement between learners in favour of those taught using advance organizers compared to those taught using conventional teaching methods. The findings also indicate that there was no statistically significant gender difference in achievement

Using graphic organizer in helping year five pupils to comprehend the small 'I'

Graphic organizers are structural tools that help readers organize thoughts. By using graphic organizers, pupils can experience words beyond pronunciation and display connections between ideas and concepts to improve comprehension. Graphic organizers help pupils sort, show relationship, make meaning, and manage data quickly and easily before, during, and after reading and discussion. As a result, pupils can display connections between ideas and concept, thus improving the text comprehension. The subjects were primarily Year Five pupils (n = 60) at a suburban school in Kota Kinabalu. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using graphic organizers as a learning tool to help Year Five pupils organize thoughts and improve reading comprehension. Using a triangular approach to data collection, this 6 week study utilized a Pre-test and Post-test control group design and individual interviews to determine the effects of graphic organizers on pupils' achievement. The data suggests that using graphic organizers might have been one factor that aided pupils in the reading comprehension process. In addition, 'this study revealed that pupils believed that graphic organizers were helpful in allowing them to organize their thoughts after reading a story. A paired samples t - test determined significant difference in achievement between the groups. The experimental group improved in achievement at least as much as the control grou

Improving Lifelong Learning by Fostering Students' Learning Strategies at University

The foundation of how students usually learn is laid early in their academic lives. However, many or even most students do not primarily rely on those learning strategies that are most favorable from a scientific point of view. To change students' learning behavior when they start their university education, we developed a computer-based adaptive learning environment to train favorable learning strategies and change students' habits using them. This learning environment pursues three main goals: acquiring declarative and conditional knowledge about learning strategies, consolidating that knowledge, and applying these learning strategies in practice. In this report, we describe four experimental studies conducted to optimize this learning environment (n = 336). With those studies, we improved the learning environment with respect to how motivating it is, investigated an efficient way to consolidate knowledge, and explored how to facilitate the formation of effective implementation intentions for applying learning strategies and changing learning habits. Our strategy-training module is implemented in the curriculum for freshman students at the Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg (Germany). Around 120 students take part in our program every year. An open version of this training intervention is freely available to everyone

Methodological Issues in Experimental Research

As a History it is important to know that Bombay University was the first to start the M.Ed. course in 1936. Also the Bombay University was the first to introduce Ph.D. in Education in 1941 and it awarded the first Ph.D. degree in Education in 1943. The Lucknow University was the next to award Ph.D. degree in Education in 1949. Jangira and Sharma (1974) reported that the first Experimental study was conducted by Javli in 1949. Most of the Experimental studies were conducted in areas, like, Microteaching, Programmed Learning, Models of Teaching, etc. On the basis of findings of Experimental studies conducted in various Universities, it was decided to make Microteaching and Models of Teaching as part of B.Ed. curriculum. Till 2009 researchers were allowed to pursue their research to get Ph.D. degree in Education without undergoing any pre- Ph.D. course in Research Methodology. But looking to the quality of research in Education and other subjects, University Grants Commission, New Delhi made pre- Ph.D. course in Research Methodology compulsory. Now it is hoped that the quality of Research in Education and other subjects will improve. I personally feel that the quality of Research in Education on the whole is on the decline. Further even the quality of pre-Ph.D. course as well as teaching is of poor quality

Adolescent Literacy and Textbooks: An Annotated Bibliography

A companion report to Carnegie's Time to Act, provides an annotated bibliography of research on textbook design and reading comprehension for fourth through twelfth grade, arranged by topic. Calls for a dialogue between publishers and researchers

Videos, audio clips, and text materials: an investigation of media use in psychology learning

A variety of media are used in undergraduate psychology education—from the traditional text materials to videos. Research has identified multimedia materials, those that convey information through words and pictures, as particularly helpful for learning (e.g., Mayer, 1989; Mayer & Anderson, 1991), but it is not clear in what context multimedia are superior over single-medium materials. It is also unclear how experiences with all media can be supported to ensure learners understand the relevant information conveyed. The wide range of multimedia materials available and the unique nature of different content within psychology create a complex issue worthy of more research. The first two studies discussed herein use videos commonly used in Introduction to Psychology courses and compare learning outcomes of those videos as compared to their single-medium formats. The second study also investigates the impact of instructional support (i.e., advance organizers) on learning outcomes for each medium. The third study focuses on a different type of video used in Introduction to Psychology courses and examines the impact of two instructional supports (i.e., advance organizers and guidance embedded in the video) on learning outcomes. Findings suggest students perform well when taught through multimedia as well as single-medium formats for both retention and application instructional goals. However, advance organizers that emphasize key concepts and encourage note-taking prove to be particularly helpful for instruction that is in audio-only or text-only formats. Implications for media use and design in psychology instruction are discussed

Development and Comparison of the Effectiveness of Computer Assisted English Language Learning Package and Computer Aided English Language Learning Package

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Effects Of Advance Organizers On Learning And Retention From A Fully Web-based Class

The purpose of this study is to investigate the short-term and long-term effects of two kinds of advance organizers (AOs), a visual concept map and a text outline. The AOs were administered in a fully Web-based course in health care ethics. The outcome measures are students\u27 knowledge acquisition and application in two posttests. This study was conducted through a post-test only control group design with a random assignment. The population of the study involved 166 college students who participated in this online class in their junior or senior year. The voluntary research participants were randomly assigned into the two treatment groups and one control group. The treatment of AO was administered as an integral part of a one-week-long online module on the topic of patient-physician relationships. Students of the two treatment groups were presented with one of the two AOs, while the control group was instructed to proceed to textbook reading without an AO. Then, students were tested on the subject matter with two parallel posttests. Both posttests were composed of a multiple-choice question quiz and a set of scenario-based essay questions. The students took posttest I at the end of the instructional week, and posttest II four weeks after. A survey and interviews were also conducted to supplement the quantitative results with contextual information. The findings do not demonstrate a statistically significant AO effect among the treatment groups and the control group. However, in agreement with the previous research, this study shows a positive but inconclusive benefit of using AOs for students\u27 short-term knowledge acquisition. The students using a concept map consistently obtained higher learning achievements than individuals using a text outline. More importantly, this study reiterated the proposition that students of lower-learning abilities benefit more from using an AO for online learning than those of higher-learning abilities. The current study extends our knowledge on the use of AOs in fully Web-based educational environments. The results indicated that although AOs more often than not have small facilitative effects for learners, they are not equally effective for all learners in all learning situations. The incorporation of the instructional strategies, such as AOs, in Web-based courses and programs might benefit online learners, especially those students of lower verbal and analytical abilities, or of lower prior knowledge of the material-to-be-learned

Studying and Constructing Concept Maps: A Meta-Analysis

A concept map is a node-link diagram in which each node represents a concept and each link identifies the relationship between the two concepts it connects. We investigated how using concept maps influences learning by synthesizing the results of 142 independent effect sizes (n = 11,814). A random-effects model meta-analysis revealed that learning with concept and knowledge maps produced a moderate, statistically significant effect (g =.58, p < .001). A moderator analysis revealed that creating concept maps (g =.72, p < .001) was associated with greater benefit relative to respective comparison conditions than studying concept maps (g = .43, p <.001). Additional moderator analyses indicated learning with concept maps was superior to other instructional comparison conditions, and was effective across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and non-STEM knowledge domains. Further moderator analyses, as well as implications for theory and practice, are provided