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ABSTRACT An Action Research Using Hands-On Instruction as an Aided Teaching Method This study is an example of “Hands-On Instruction” as an Aided Teaching Method in order to realize how much our students can understand the phenomenon of the atmospheric pressure. Hopefully, this will help the students to heuristically correct their misconception through the“Action Research”pedagogy. As a main drawback in our traditional education system, the goal of learning is just for attending college and obtaining diploma. In other words, scoring high in the examinations is equivalent to high achievement. Although every school tries to form classes based on‘Adaptive Teaching’, there are still many teachers who do not instruct and guide the students according to their abilities. Hence many different teaching methods, which might be suitable for science education, are such as , They are“Inquiry Method” pedagogy,“Constructivism” pedagogy,“Action Research in Teaching ” pedagogy, and “Hands —On Instruction” pedagogy are adapted . Based on these teaching methods, a scientific Learning Unit, ‘the magic of the atmospheric pressure’, is designed and planned to instruct two classes of students. Also these new teaching methods are compared with the traditional method that relies merely on teacher’s instruction. This traditional method is used in four other classes of students. By applying these different teaching methods, a study report is completed according to the results that indicate how well those students understand this specific topic. In addition, the results and discoveries suggest that this “Hands —On Instruction” as an Aided Teaching Method be able to help the students enjoying studying natural science and not considering the natural science courses as bored and difficult. This is because the spirit and the concept of the “Hands —On Instruction” construct and derive directly from the “learning from the team work” and “search to discovery”. However, our junior high school students still believe that their learning is just for the examinations, they never pay attention to study and understand the problem. Most likely in the laboratory class, the hardworking students would copy the answers and results directly from the laboratory experiment guide or solution book without understanding the goal and meaning of the experiment. On the contrary, the under-achieved students would not only chat with other students but also disobey the laboratory regulations in the class. Naturally, it is impossible for those under-achieved students to do the experiment and understand the material at home. The whole study process took slightly more than half year. These students, which belong to A, B, C, D, E, and F class, can all study the topic diligently under the well-prepared guidance of the instructor. From implementing and studying the “Hands-On Instruction and Action Research” pedagogy, detailed diagnoses and analyses for all the encountered problems are performed during the end of each process, so that the students’ misconception regarding this atmospheric pressure phenomenon can be corrected. In order to reach conclusions for this study, a series of statistical analysis, comparison, and distribution figures are prepared. Hopefully, through this study work an answer can be found that how helpful this “Hands-On Instruction” pedagogy is for assisting students to have better understanding in science.
Her-Sheng Kung CHUNG YUAN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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