Effects of Guided Inquiry-Oriented Modular Instruction on Grade 7 Students’ Science Process Skills, Epistemological Beliefs in Science and Conceptual Understanding in Ecology
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Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effects of Guided Inquiry-Oriented Modular Instruction on Grade 7 students’ science process skills, epistemological beliefs in science and conceptual understanding on Ecology. A quasi-experimental design, the matching only pretest-posttest control group was employed in this study. The participants of the study involved two intact sections of Grade 7 students of MSU-Tugaya High School located in the municipality of Tugaya, Lanao del Sur of school year 2016-2017. The study used one adopted instrument from A.M. Conley et al. (2000)-the Epistemological Beliefs in Science Questionnaire (EBSQ) and two researcher-made instruments- the Science Process Skills (SPS) Checklist and the Conceptual Understanding Test in Ecology (CUTE). Other sources of data are journal writings, interview guide questions, and reflection questions in the module. Quantitative data were analyzed using t-test for independent samples and Chi-square (χ2) test and were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Qualitative data were statistics free and were used to support the quantitative data to fully explain the phenomenon investigated. In the comparison between the control and experimental groups’ science process skills mean score, before the intervention, the control group posted higher mean score (9.91) than the experimental group (8.30); however the difference is not significant (t =0.91, p=0.37 > .05). After the intervention, the experimental group posted higher mean score (14.48) than the control group (8.57) and the difference is significant (t=-2.76, p= 0.01 < .05) in favor of the experimental group. On the epistemological beliefs in science (EBS) before the intervention, students in both control and experimental groups demonstrated transitionary beliefs in all of the four dimensions. After intervention, the control group demonstrated a continuum of naïve-transitionary-informed beliefs while the experimental group demonstrated informed beliefs in two of the EBS dimensions. There is no significant difference in the EBS mean score between the control and experimental groups of students in all the four EBS dimensions before and after intervention (all p’s > .05). On the conceptual understanding level before intervention, the control and experimental groups demonstrated low and average levels. After intervention, the control group still demonstrated low and average levels while the experimental group demonstrated low, average, and high levels of conceptual understanding. In the comparison of control and experimental groups’ conceptual understanding test mean score, before the intervention, the control and experimental groups posted closer mean score (28.7 vs. 29.1) and the difference is not significant (t = -0.36; p=0.72 >0.05). After intervention, the experimental group posted higher mean score (36.6) than the control group (31.5) and the difference is significant (t = -3.87;p= 0.00< .05) in favor of the experimental group. In the evaluation of the Guided Inquiry-Oriented Modular Instruction’s features, the students rated excellent in the overall. It helped students’ conceptual understandings and science processes skills improved, and promoted their epistemological beliefs in science. The findings of the study underscore the need to develop teaching approaches that promote and facilitate activation of students’ science process skills, informed epistemological beliefs in science and deeper conceptual understandings in ecology. It is recommended to school administrators and science teachers to utilize guided inquiry-oriented modular teaching approach in teaching science topic domains.
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