Research of Contextual Problem Solving on 8th Grade Students’ Physical Science Learning and Problem Solving Ability

• Main Authors: Cheng, Shu-Chuan, 鄭淑娟
• Other Authors: She, Hsiao-Ching
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/32970130681203209621

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 教育研究所 === 98 === Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of contextualized scientific problem solving on students learning of science in terms of their problem solving ability and scientific concept construction. This study used a quasi-experiment with one factorial design of instructional approaches (problem-solving experiment and traditional experiment). There were 126 junior high school students involved in this study from four intact classes in north part of Taiwan. There were sixty-one students received problem-solving experiment while there were sixty-five students received traditional experiment. All students were given three tests: scientific achievement test, scientific conception two tier test, and contextualized problem-solving test before, after and after six weeks of instruction. The group students who receiving contextualized problem-solving experiment were also collected their problem solving worksheet. Results indicate that problem-solving experiment group significantly outperformed than to the control group in scientific achievement test, scientific conception two tier test, and contextualized problem-solving test, regardless of immediate effect and retaining effect. Students contextualized problem solving test also were further analyzed through qualitative method which clearly indicated that experimental group students provided greater frequency of higher level problem solutions and scientific explanations across questions. Regarding to the lab problem solving data, it clearly indicated that students performance for the scales of known knowledge, solutions, explanations, design experiment, evaluation, and assessment do vary across topics, however, we do see pattern of increasing their performance across topics in general.