The Effect of Mazur’s Peer Instruction on the Learning of Buoyancy by Eighth Graders in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Lee, Chen-Hui, 李貞慧
• Other Authors: Tam, Hak-Ping
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/56645287285845742992

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 科學教育研究所 === 100 === Due to the reason that generally Taiwanese junior high school students cannot learn the principle of buoyancy well, this research aimed to adopt the peer instruction, which is proposed by Harvard University professor Eric Mazur. The process of peer instruction includes briefly instructing a main idea by the teacher, proposing a main issue of discuss for students personally and assembly, holding group discussion among students, and proceeding the progress of instruction which depends on the amounts of students’ correct answers. This study proposes three different treatment conditions on eight grade students, in order to test how Mazur’s peer instruction affects students’ understanding of principle of buoyancy. The nonequivalent pretest-postest quasi-experimental design is used as the study method and the time of lecturing is 5 classes for each condition. The study was set up with three treatment conditions, namely, peer instruction with flashcards, peer instruction with interactive response system, and lecturing out of teacher prepared notes. Three classrooms with total of 104 students were randomly chosen from two junior high schools in Taipei city. This research pre-tests the three groups with diagnostic questionnaire designed by the researcher to understand students’ knowledge of relative concepts of force balance and buoyancy. Teaching method designed in accordance with Mazur’s peer instruction is put into practice on the treatment groups. Post-tests are held to identify the significant difference between the two treatment groups. Besides, this study uses qualitative data analysis to analyze the data of the open questions in the attitude questionnaire to investigate the opinions and the acceptance level of the peer instruction among the treatment groups. The results show that, first, although there’s no significant difference between the results of post-tests of the treatment groups and the control group, the average points of post-tests which are amended by the analysis of covariance show that the performance of the group of peer instruction with flashcards is slightly better than that of peer instruction with interactive response system. Second, by analyzing the data of post-tests and the recording of students’ interaction at class, the study shows that the groups of peer instruction can performance better and involve in thinking more. Third, by comparing the post-tests results of the three groups, it proves that the group of peer instruction with flashcards progresses more. Forth, by analyzing attitude the questionnaire, the result suggests that the percentage of students who like Mazur’s peer instruction is more than that of students who dislike it. Since most students agree that the peer instruction can make them focus on the class more, it is reasonable to say that Mazur’s peer instruction can promote a positive atmosphere as well as students’ motivation.