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Effects of systematic training on self-questioning techniques on secondary students' science achievement
Author
Gwan, Wai Lan
Supervisor
Chang, Shook Cheong
Abstract
Studies have shown that learning strategy is one of the important factors that can affect learning. In the area of learning from text materials, self-questioning strategy has been shown to be effective in enhancing students' comprehension of prose and performance of students in post-training assessments. In view of the positive effects reported (Davey and MacBride, 1986; King, 1989 and Laidlaw et al., 1993), this exploratory study was set out to investigate the effects of training in self-questioning on students' (i) science performance, (ii) ability to generate questions, (iii) study habits and (iv) confidence in asking questions of themselves and in class.
The research study comprises an experiment involving two groups of students. The experimental group consisted of twenty-eight normal ability Secondary Two Express Stream girls. They were instructed during five two-and-a-half hours training sessions to generate the type of questions in Question-Answer-Relationship Strategy (QAR) and in Bloom's Taxonomy. The thirty-one students in the control group did other activities that were not related to any learning strategies during the period of intervention. As a matter of interest, the study also attempted to extend into the area of learning strategy retention.
Results indicated that there was an improvement in the science performance of the trained students. They did better than the control group in a school science examination. The trained students were also found to be able to generate more higher-level questions of the Analysis type than the untrained students. However, the ability to generate Application questions remained unchanged for both the experimental and control groups after the intervention. More of the subjects in the experimental group indicated that they asked themselves questions during revision for their examination. The training appeared to have negligible effect on students' confidence in asking questions of themselves or in class. On the retention of self-questioning strategy, students had only partial knowledge of the strategy when they were tested twelve weeks after the training. Students could remember questions in QAR better than questions in Bloom's Taxonomy.
The results obtained in this study indicate an overall positive effect of self-questioning strategy on students performance and on the quality of questions generated. However, due to the small scale of the study and the brevity of the intervention, the results are to be treated with caution.
The research study comprises an experiment involving two groups of students. The experimental group consisted of twenty-eight normal ability Secondary Two Express Stream girls. They were instructed during five two-and-a-half hours training sessions to generate the type of questions in Question-Answer-Relationship Strategy (QAR) and in Bloom's Taxonomy. The thirty-one students in the control group did other activities that were not related to any learning strategies during the period of intervention. As a matter of interest, the study also attempted to extend into the area of learning strategy retention.
Results indicated that there was an improvement in the science performance of the trained students. They did better than the control group in a school science examination. The trained students were also found to be able to generate more higher-level questions of the Analysis type than the untrained students. However, the ability to generate Application questions remained unchanged for both the experimental and control groups after the intervention. More of the subjects in the experimental group indicated that they asked themselves questions during revision for their examination. The training appeared to have negligible effect on students' confidence in asking questions of themselves or in class. On the retention of self-questioning strategy, students had only partial knowledge of the strategy when they were tested twelve weeks after the training. Students could remember questions in QAR better than questions in Bloom's Taxonomy.
The results obtained in this study indicate an overall positive effect of self-questioning strategy on students performance and on the quality of questions generated. However, due to the small scale of the study and the brevity of the intervention, the results are to be treated with caution.
Date Issued
1996
Call Number
Q183.4.S5 Gwa
Date Submitted
1996