Hands-on Learning Motivates Students in the Science Classroom Thesis

Hands-on Learning Motivates Students in the Science Classroom - Thesis Example References 27 6.0. Appendices 28 6.1. Appendix 1: Student Survey Questionnaire 28 6.2. Appendix 2: Teacher-To-Be Survey Questionnaire 29 6.3. Appendix 3: Results of Test-Retest Reliability Analysis 30 List of Tables Table 1. Gender and Age Profile of Grade 10 Student Respondents 7 Table 2. Gender and Age Profile of Teacher and Student-Teacher Respondents 8 Table 3. Detailed Data Analysis Plan 12 Table 4. Student Level of Interest on Lecture 19 Table 5. Level of Student Interest on Hands-On Activities 20 Table 6. Students’ Preferred Method in Science Teaching 21 List of Figures Figure 1: Why Students Take the Science Course 13 Figure 2: What the Students Like to Do in the Science Classroom 14 Figure 3: Frequency of Conducting Group Activities 16 Figure 4: Perceived Usefulness of Labs or Hands-On Activities 16 Figure 5: Student Understanding of Concepts through Hands-On Activities 17 Figure 6: Teaching Method That Helped Students Better 18 1.0 Introduction The term hands-on lear ning means â€Å"learning through doing† (Gardiner, 2005, para.2). Hands-on learning is used commonly in the science classroom to describe a form of learning where students investigate and develop understanding of a scientific concept by active involvement in an activity or an experiment (Gardiner, 2005). Askell-Williams and Lawson (as cited in Brophy, 2010) reported that middle school students frequently mention hands-on activities when asked about interesting elements of lessons, together with features which satisfy their need to for independence, competence and relatedness, experiments, outdoor learning, design projects, and innovative and creative assignments. Meanwhile, high school students enjoy classes for different reasons, and tend to rate highly those related to learning, creation,... Grounded on the findings of the study, all groups of respondents demonstrated their concurrence with the thesis statement that â€Å"hands-on learning motivates students in the science classroom†. The following conclusions were drawn for the specific objectives of the study. This report makes a conclusion that the uniqueness of each individual is one of the perplexities of humankind. Even twins have different set of fingerprints and different ways of learning styles and preferred teaching method. Even student teachers who are well-versed on the efficacy of various teaching methods prefer different teaching styles. The experienced science teachers recognized such individual differences and attributed different favorite teaching styles to such differences. The teachers declared that there is no one single style which can help develop the cognitive competence of students in science. In some concepts, however, one or a combination of two methods have proven to be more efficient that other styles. Teachers have to be aware of student preference and needs to adapt lessons and activities to these varying needs. The Science teachers enumerated several advantages and disadvantages of hands-on activities. Among the advantages identified were: hands-on activities e nable students to experience scientific phenomena through experiments with physical materials; these activities teach a student in planning investigations, utilization of scientific instruments, and in the collection, recording, and analysis of data.