Comparison of the effects of some teaching methods on achievement, attitude and retention in teaching biology

VII SUMMARY In this study, the effects of Cooperative Learning (CL), Mastery Learning (ML), Cooperative Mastery Learning (CML) and Traditional methods on student's achievement, retention and attitudes toward Biology course have been investigated as comparative in teaching biology. The research was conducted at the Ziya Gökalp High School in Diyarbakır. "Attitude Scale toward Biology course" and "Achievement Test on the Basic Component of Living" were applied as pretest to the first grades of this high school. Four homogeneous classes were chosen with respect to those tests. The chosen examples contain 125 students. The unit of Basic Component of Living have been taught by using Traditional teaching method (control group) in one of the classes and in the other three classes CL, ML and CML methods have been used during two months. At the end of this process the tests of "Attitude Scale toward Biology course" and "Achievement Test on the Basic Component of Living" were applied again as posttest. Six weeks after the posttests, "Achievement Test on the Basic Component of Living" was applied as retention test. The data which was obtained from these applications was statistically analyzed. The research findings have been summarized as follows: Significant differences have been appeared between posttests and pretests scores within each applied method. These results interpreted as statistically significant success can be obtained by each teaching method. When those teaching methods compared with each other, whit respect to the achievement test posttest scores, ML and CML; whit respect to the achievement levels CL and ML; whit respect to the retention test scores ML and CML methods give more successful results than the traditional method. A significant difference was not observed between the other teaching methods for the tests in question. It has been determined that the difference between posttest and pretest attitude scores toward biology lesson is significant for CL but this difference is not significant for the other teaching methods. This result was interpreted as CL method effects positively on the attitude of the students toward biology lesson. There İs no significant difference between groups with respect to the posttest attitude scores of the students. The items of Attitude Scale toward Biology course were divided into three sub- dimensions by taking into consideration the student's self confidence, benefits of biology and the items measure teacher's attitude. Analyzing data by the sub-dimensions showed that differences between posttest and pretest scores for teacher's attitude are significant and in positive direction for CL and ML.VIII CL, ML and CML methods are significantly and positively different from traditional method while experienced methods are compared with each other with respect to teacher's attitude by these sub-dimensions. The posttest scores were compared by the other sub- dimensions (confidence, usefulness) but no significant differences were found between groups. The correlation coefficients between the pretest attitude and achievement scores were calculated and tested by the teaching methods. It was found that these correlation coefficients are not significant. On the other hand, correlation coefficients between the posttest attitude and achievement scores were found significant for used methods except traditional method. These results show that CL, ML and CML methods have better effect on the student's attitude toward Biology course and their achievements. Cluster analysis were performed for experienced methods by using the mean differences of posttests and pretests scores (achievement, attitude, self confident, teacher's attitude, benefit of biology). The resulted dendrogram shows that the most similar methods are CL and CML. ML is more similar to CL and CML than the Traditional method. The biggest dissimilarity appear between Traditional method and the other methods. The results of Cluster Analysis and the other results of this study shows that characteristic of CL occurs mostly in comparison with ML when CL and ML methods used together. The results obtained and summarized above from this study clearly shows that teacher centered teaching method should be given up. A significant successful results can be obtained in teaching process if a suitable teaching method is used depending on the school's opportunities, structure of subjects and characteristics of student. Also this situation shows how important the pedagogical formation for Education Faculty student's beside field formation. Also it has proved that how inconvenient appointing one as a teacher who is not a graduate of Education Faculty. Which teaching method will be convenient in which circumstances appeared as a new worth-while research question in this study. By taking the educational facility of a school and characteristics of students into consideration, it is necessary to determine the answer of this question for our country or in general.