Increased conceptual learning through a guided discovery approach of the ISP

Abstract

The cookbook style experiments of the ionising radiation practical (closed ISP) have been used for 40 years by 350 schools in the Netherlands annually. Ten “open ISP” experiments were developed in 2012 to meet the desire from teachers for more discovery based learning in these experiments. First, this study tries to connect this desire to a growing body of research that advocates guided discovery learning. Secondly it measures the conceptual learning as a result of participating in the open ISP compared to the closed ISP of 42 exam year students in three different high schools throughout the Netherlands using a pre and post test. Thirdly it records the experiences of teachers and students to inform the interpretation of those results using questionnaires and recorded student teacher interactions. A method for guided discovery learning in practical laboratories was found that emphasizes a good preparation by student and teacher, an awareness of the scientific aim and didactical purpose of the laboratory and meaningful guidance and feedback during the preparation and execution of the laboratory. A significant increase (p=0,021) in test scores was measured after participating in the ISP. There was however no significantly greater(p=0,595) increase between the open and closed variants. The effect size, Cohen’s d, of the open ISP (d=0,564) was slightly greater than that of the closed ISP (d=0,360). However, because of the small sample size this is not a very powerful result. A qualitative analysis of the questionnaires and student teacher interactions shows that students which participated in an ISP that followed the guided discovery guidelines felt more challenged, spend less time on the actual experiments and showed greater motivation to do guided discovery learning in the future. Unfortunately, the pooling of all schools to increase sample size led to a mediation of the test results from students so no connection to increased conceptual learning can be shown. This study recommends that the number of open ISP experiments be increased and that teachers be given all the tools they need to effectively use guided discovery learning to increase conceptual learning.