Use of the learning cycle to promote cognitive development

Mary Ann Davison, Purdue University

Abstract

This study is part of a continuing effort to understand why a large percentage of students enrolled in general chemistry at a private university in Puerto Rico fail the course. Pilot studies probed the level of intellectual development, mathematics background, and reading comprehension of students. Based on the results of those probes, this study was designed to assess the level of intellectual development of the students and to design a laboratory program aimed at improving their level of cognitive functioning. The Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT), the Longeot Test, the Science Process Skills Test (TIPSII), Guay Rotations test and Find a Shape Puzzle (FASP) were administered as pre-tests. The results from these tests were compared with scores for mainland science students that have been reported in the literature. These comparisons indicate that the Puerto Rican students in this study score much lower on tests of logical thinking, process skills, and spatial ability than their mainland counterparts. The GALT and TIPSII were administered as posttests to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning cycle experiments used in the study to promote intellectual development. Students who used the learning cycle experiments outperformed a control group that used conventional laboratory experiments on TIPSII but not on the GALT. In order to obtain more specific information about the treatment effect comparisons were made between the proportion of students in the control and experimental groups who answered each item on these tests correctly. Scores from the pretests were used in a regression analysis to predict success in the general chemistry course. However, the predictive validity of the resulting equation was too low to be of any practical value.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Herron, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Science education|Higher education

COinS