CHAPTER-V

SUMMARY, FINDINGS OF THE STUDY,

IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

5.0 OVERVIEW

This chapter begins with an overview. In next section it summarises the research work

by giving research question, statement, objectives, hypothesis, and its tools and

techniques. Next section deals with the findings of the study. Next section deals with

the discussion on the findings of the study. After that it describes educational

implications of the study. Next section gives out it's recommendations and the last

section deals with the suggestions for further research.

5.1 SUMMARY

RESEARCH QUESTION

1. How effective is activity-based science learning on problem solving and

critical thinking senior secondary school students?

2. Will it be possible to develop problem solving skills and critical thinking skills

through the task oriented activities in science teaching.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The statement of the study entitled

Effect of Activity Based Science Learning on Problem Solving and

Critical Thinking Senior secondary school Students

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The researcher constructed the following objectives for her study:

1. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on problem

solving skill among students of elementary class.

101
2. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on problem

solving skill among students of elementary class with respect to gender.

3. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on critical

thinking skill of elementary class students.

4. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on critical

thinking skill of elementary class students with respect to gender.

5. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on academic

achievement of elementary class students.

6. To study the effectiveness of ‘activity-based science learning’ on academic

achievement of elementary class students with respect to gender.

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

The researcher has given the following null hypothesis(H0) for her investigation

1. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of problem

1

solving skills of experimental group and the control group at pretest level for

the total sample.

2. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of problem

2

solving skills of the experimental group and the control group at post test level

for the total sample.

3. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of problem

3

solving skills of the experimental group and the control group at post test level

with respect to gender.

102
4. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of critical
4

thinking skills of the experimental group and the control group at the pre test

level for the total sample.

5. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of critical

5

thinking skills of the experimental group and the control group at post-test level

for the total sample.

6. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of critical

6

thinking skills of the experimental group and the control group at post-test level

with respect to gender.

7. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of academic

7

achievement of the experimental group and the control group at pretest level.

8. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of academic

8

achievement of the experimental group and the control group at post-test level.

9. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of academic

9

achievement of the experimental group and the control group at post-test level

with respect to gender.

10. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of problem

10

solving skill of the experimental group and the control group for the total

sample with the adjusted means at post-test level.

11. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of Critical

11

thinking skill of the experimental group and the control group for the total

sample with the adjusted means at the post-test level

103
12. H0 There is no significant difference between the mean levels of academic
12

achievement of the experimental group and the control group for the total sample with

the adjusted means at the Post-test level.

VARIABLES OF THE STUDY

There were four variables in this study. One was an independent variable (I.V.) and rest

three were dependent variables (D. V.).

Independent variable (I.V.)

The independent variable was Intervention program ('activity-based science learning'

lesson plan) developed by the researcher. Here in this study researcher had taught both

the groups i.e. control group with traditional methods (lecture cum discussion method)

and experimental group with Intervention program (Activity-based Science Learning),

that was developed by the researcher.

Dependent Variables (D. V.)

The dependent variables of the study were:

 Problem Solving Skill

 Critical Thinking Skills and

 Academic Achievement

This study investigated and find out the effect of independent variable ( Activity-based

Science learning) on the dependent variables ( Problem solving skill, Critical thinking

skill and Academic Achievement of Elementary class Students).

104
POPULATION AND SAMPLE

POPULATION

The population of the study is from Ghaziabad district. Which is divided into 6 blocks

i.n. Bhojpur, Ghaziabad, Loni, Muradnagar, Modinagar and Rajapur. Population of the

study constitutes the students studying in class 8th of all types of Public Schools

regulated under CBSE board in Ghaziabad district.

Area of research is basically from upper primary school, confined to 8th class.

SAMPLE OF THE STUDY AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Keeping in mind the objectives of the study random sampling technique was adopted

to draw exact representative sample for the study. First of all, on the basis of

randomisation ( lottery method) from the above discussed six blocks, one block has

been selected i.e. Loni was selected. There are 313 (approximately) schools in Loni

cluster. Purposive sampling technique was used to select one school for the study i.e.

“New Adarsh Public School”, Loni.

From the above sample school, two intact sections of 8th class were selected for the

study. The students in these two sections were not grouped under any ability. The

students of all the sections of the school where comes under no grouping ability. For

the study, total hundred (100) students were selected ( 50 students in each section). But

after execution of the intervention program some students were absent in pretest and

some were absent in posttest and some also absent in both test so researcher excluded

those students from the data while analysing it. Now the total sample was of seventy

(70 students), 35 students in each class.

105
From the above selected two sections, one section was named as experimental group

and another one as a control group.

The Elementary class(i.e. 8th class) for the study selected through purposive sampling

technique.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

ACTIVITY:

Here the term activity means those classroom activities/strategies in teaching-learning

process, which develop the power to think and understand.

In activity-based module, activity actually refers to those question based situations

which engages children in thinking process.

These activities based on the dimensions of critical thinking and problem solving

skills. This includes different types of thought provoking: statements, questions in

the form of- puzzle, fill-up, matching, guessing questions, scenarios, discussion, etc.

These activities are performed along with the course and can be given within the

teaching-learning process.

PROBLEM SOLVING SKILL:

Problem solving is basically a systematic way of dealing Problem to find out the

solutions.

Problem solving is helpful in developing student’s reasoning skills. Problem solving is

a process of planned activities which eliminate a problem or unpleasant situation to a

desired goal. It involves the following steps one after another in sequential order:

 Identifying and defining a problem,

106
 Generating alternative solutions from the solution,

 Selecting the best one and implement on that solution and

 Finally evaluate the solution whether that works or not if it not then

 Revisit the step at generating solution and select another solution and proceed

further.

These above mentioned steps are clubbed to find out the result. This develops the

ability to get logical solutions. Through these steps, one can analyse the situation from

every angle before taking any decision.

CRITICAL THINKING SKILL:

Critical thinking is a mental process where one can use his knowledge, skills for

enquiry and gathering information and analyse or evaluate information on the ground

of facts, logic and relevance and finally taking judgement which is most suitable in that

circumstance.

Dimensions of Critical thinking for the study have been taken from Watson and

Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and these are:

 Recognition of assumptions - “ability to recognise unstated assumptions or

presuppositions”

 Interpretations - “weighting evidence and decide whether the conclusion is

related to the given data or not”

 Deduction - “determining whether the conclusion follows from the given data

or not, avoiding the truth and just deduce from the given information”

107
 Evaluation of arguments - “differentiating the arguments by weak or

strong argument and taking important decisions based on the relevant and

strong arguments”.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT:

Academic achievement tests how much one has been successful in acquiring the

content and fulfilling the predetermined objectives (cognitive level- knowledge,

understanding and application) through the 'Activity-based Science Learning'.

Academic achievement is the performance of the student in achieving the educational

goal. It measures the extent to which a student has achieved. It is continuous assessment

of a child in the school. It tests the factual knowledge as well as the knowledge of the

skill.

INSTRUMENTATION or TOOLS FOR THE RESEARCH

For conducting the study and collecting the data, following tools/instruments used for

the study are as follows:

1. Intervention programme “Activity-based module”- developed by the

researcher.

2. "Problem solving skill test" to measure the ability of problem solving among

the students - developed by the researcher.

3. "Critical thinking skills test" to measure the ability of critical thinking among

the students - developed by the researcher.

4. "Academic achievement test" to measure the factual/content knowledge in

Science topic for 8 class - developed by the researcher.

th

108
DATA COLLECTION

This section describes all the activities that started from the first day of pre-test,

continued through intervention and till the last day of the post test.

After selecting the intact sections, one group was marked as control group and another

as experimental group. The pre- test were administered one by one on both the groups

i.e. of problem solving skill test, critical thinking skill tests and academic achievement

tests were administered on both sections or groups(experimental group and control

group).

After that, both groups were taught by the researcher herself. Control group were

taught through traditional (lecture cum discussion) method and experimental group

were taught the same lessons through the intervention program that was developed by

the researcher. The time duration for teaching a period of 45 minutes per day and was

the same for both the groups.

After 30 working days of intervention, post test were administered on both the

groups. The whole process was extended upto 34 days including the number of days of

teaching-learning process along with the days in which tests were conducted.

STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES

Statistical techniques were used in the study to analyze and interpret the data

meaningfully.

Data analysis of this study was done according to the Research objectives and design

of the study, that includes descriptive statistics and inferential statistical tests.

109
The design of the study was Quasi experimental, pre-test and posttest,experimental-

control,nonequivalent-group design. Statistical tests used for analysing the data was t-

test (independent sample t-test) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) had been used

for the total sample. ANCOVA stands for analysis of covariance it tests whether there

is a significant difference between groups after controlling for variance or covariate.

Covariate is a continuous variable that correlates with the dependent variable.

Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is used for statistical control. There are some

covariates (extraneous variable or confounding variables) which researcher doesn't

want to examine but may affect the result of the study. The effects of covariates can be

partial out by the use of regression along with ANOVA.

Here, the design of the research was Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest, non-random

sample and non-equivalent sections. So in order to minimise the effect of covariates on

the dependent variable, ANCOVA was used.

For this research, Pretest-scores are used as covariates. This will minimise the effect of

pretest (as covariates) on the result of the study.

In order to find out the effect of activity-based science learning on problem solving,

critical thinking skills and academic achievement, the comparison of scores has been

done at pretest and post-test level by applying the t-test and ANCOVA.

ANCOVA was used for the total sample because of the Quasi-experimental and non-

random assignment of the groups. In this design the two groups are not exactly equal,

they are intact classes which are non-equivalent. Their non-equivalence property can

disturb the result of intervention and for this ANCOVA helps in controlling this by

putting values of pre-test as covariate thus getting the exact effect of intervention

110
showing on post-test result and that would not be due to initial differences before

intervention. It can also be explained in such a manner that the ANCOVA was used to

reduce the error variance.

5.2 FINDINGS

The data was analysed and interpreted in the form of the findings of the study, as given

below:

Problem Solving skill of Experimental group and Control group at pre-test level

“After analysing the data, it can be concluded that though there were differences in the

mean of pre-test of the experimental group from the mean of pre-test of control group

and also mean of experimental was higher than the control group in the problem

solving, yet there was no significant difference at 0.05 significance level in their

problem solving skill between the pre-test scores of the control group and experimental

group. Hence null hypothesis was accepted here. It means there was no significance

difference in the Problem solving skill between students of experimental group and

control group in their pre-test level”.

Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Problem Solving skill due to the effect of Intervention program at post-test level

It was found that there was a significant difference between the mean level of problem

solving skill of experimental group and control group at post-test level. It shows there

was an effect of Intervention program on developing the problem solving skill of

students of experimental group.

111
Effect of Intervention program on Problem Solving skill of students of

Experimental group with respect to Gender

“It was found that the male of experimental group in their mean value(16.8824) were

more than the mean value(16.1500) of male of control group but mean of both the

groups with respect to male gender are quite close to each other and while comparing

the mean value of female also, it was found that the mean value (18.3889) of female

of experimental group was more than the mean value (15.7333) of female of control

group. It also shown that among them (gender of both the groups), female of

experimental group was leading among the genders in the mean value of problem

solving skill. Still that difference was not sufficient for rejecting the null hypothesis at

0.05 significance level”.

“Hence at 0.05 level of significance, there was no significant difference between the

score of the control group and experimental group at Post-test level with respect to

gender. Hence the null hypothesis was accepted. That means there was no effect of

Intervention program on developing the problem solving skill of students of

experimental group with respect to Gender. It means both the gender either male or

female have the equal opportunity to develop their problem solving skill through an

intervention program”.

Critical Thinking skill of students of Experimental group and Control group at

pre-test level

“Here the value of p >.05. So we can say that at 0.05 significance level there was no

significant difference between the pre-test scores of critical thinking skill of the

groups. Hence the null hypothesis was accepted. It means both the groups have the

similarity in critical thinking skill before the intervention program”.

112
Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Critical Thinking skill because of Intervention program at post-test level

After the application of intervention program on the experimental grow there is a

significant difference in their critical thinking skill with the control group at post-test

level. It means there is an effect of intervention program on experimental group in

developing their critical thinking skill.

Effect of Intervention program on Critical Thinking and skill of students of

Experimental group with respect to Gender

“Finding of the hypothesis H0 , it was found that there was a difference between the
6

mean scores of male and female in critical thinking skill. On finding the result between

the subject factors, both groups were compared and found that the male and female of

the experimental group performed well or better in mean scores than the male and

female of the control group. While comparing within the group, female of experimental

group were better in mean scores in critical thinking as compared with the male or

experimental group. Also female of experimental group found better in mean scores of

critical thinking among the total sample. Besides all these differences in the means

score still there is no significant difference between the main levels of critical thinking

skills of the experimental group and the control group at posttest level with respect to

gender because these mean differences were not sufficient for making it significantly

different at 0.0 5 significance level. it means there was no effect of intervention

programme on the experimental group in developing critical thinking skills with respect

to gender. Hence the null hypothesis was accepted. It means both the gender is a male

or female have the equal opportunity to develop critical thinking skill with the help of

intervention program”.

113
Academic Achievement of students of Experimental group and Control group at

pre-test level

Before the intervention program the pre-test of academic achievement test was given

to both the groups and found that both have almost similar result and there was no

significant difference in academic achievement between the experimental group and

the control group at pre-test level.

Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Academic Achievement because of Intervention program at post-test level

“After applying the intervention program on the experimental group, the post-test of

academic achievement was given to both the groups and found that there was an

increase in academic achievement of experimental group students. Hence, there was a

significant difference in academic achievement of experimental group and control

group at post-test level”.

Effect of Intervention program on Academic Achievement of students of

Experimental group with respect to Gender

“Though the mean scores of the experimental group have higher values than the mean

score of control group but while comparing male and female in general there was no

significant difference between the male and female in their academic achievement at

post-test level. It means both genders either male or female have the equal opportunity

in developing academic achievement with the help of intervention program”.

114
Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Problem Solving skill for the Total sample with the adjusted means at post-test

level

In this study, to control statistically the impact of pre-test scores on the final scores,

ANCOVA was applied and it was found that there was a significant difference between

the mean levels of problem solving skill of the experimental group and the control

group for the total sample with the adjusted means at post-test level. It means that the

result was showing on the posttest was the true impact of intervention program.

Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Critical Thinking skill for the Total sample at posttest level

ANCOVA was applied for controlling statistically the effect of pretest scores and the

pre test scores acts as covariate. Result shows that there was a significant difference

between the experimental group and control group in the critical thinking skill for the

total sample at post-test level. Difference in the score is due to the impact of

intervention only and not because of the variation in the pretest scores.

Significant difference between the Experimental group and Control group in their

Academic Achievement for the Total sample with the adjusted mean at posttest

level

“The findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the experimental

group and control group in the academic achievement for the total sample with the

adjusted mean at posttest level. it means there was an impact of intervention

programme in developing the academic achievement of experimental group students.

115
the result obtained was purely due to the intervention program and there was not due

to the variation in pretest scores”.

5.3 CONCLUSIONS

In this study the effect of activity-based science learning on problem solving and

critical thinking senior secondary school students were examined and the following

findings were obtained. It was found that the experimental group in which the students

were taught through the activity-based science learning (intervention program) were

found better in problem solving skill than the control group in which students were

taught through the traditional method. When pretest and posttest scores of the

experimental group and control group were compared within a group, it was found that

there was a rise in problem solving skill from pre test scores to post test scores and also

on comparing the post test scores between the two groups, it was found that scores of

experimental group was significantly higher than the scores of the control group. So, it

can be said that the teaching through intervention program most found more successful

in developing problem solving skill than the control group method. This finding

supports the previous result where there were effect of activity-based science learning

on problem solving skill.

From the findings of the study, it revealed that there was an impact of intervention

program on developing critical thinking skill

This study also gives result that activities enhances the academic achievement of the

students of experimental groups. This result was supported with the prior studies done

by Kayali et Al. (2002), where active involvement of students in problem based active

learning had a positive impact on their academic achievement. Akinoglu (2006), also

support positive effect of problem-based active learning on Student's

116
achievement. Chaipichit, Jantharajit & Chookhampaeng, (2015) also supports through

their study that there was an impact of approaches in which reasoning and enquiry skills are

used on the enhancement of critical thinking skill and also in the development of student’s

academic achievement.

This shows that the effect of Intervention program seems to be successful in the

development of problem solving, critical thinking skill and academic achievement.

This study also revealed that both genders either male or female have the equal

opportunity in developing problem solving and critical thinking skill and also equal

opportunity in enhancing their academic achievement. A study done by Indira

Sharma, (2007), also revealed that there was no significant difference in problem

solving ability between boys and girls. So, this study somehow supports the above

findings of the present study.

5.4 EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY

1. This study primarily focused on ‘learning by thinking’ and helpful for teachers

for engaging students in various task-based classroom activities and helps in

developing the active environment of the classroom.

2. This study stressing the necessity of classroom task-based activities for

developing problem solving and critical thinking skills and emphasizes its

importance in enhancing academic performance.

3. This study recommends the implementation of task based activities as a part of

daily science teaching-learning process.

117
4. The findings of this study concluded that for the development of problem

solving and critical thinking skills there must be the need of making changes in

the traditional teaching-learning process.

5. The findings of the study also revealed that there is no relation with the gender

in developing problem solving skill and critical thinking skills. Hence it is clear

that both male and female have equal opportunity for developing problem

solving and critical thinking skill. So, this removes any type of biases during

distributing the activities among the students.

6. The study also revealed that academic achievement of the student can be

enhanced with the use of classroom activities along with the content during

teaching learning process. This may be helpful for teachers to develop lesson

plans which helps in getting better understanding and results.

7. This study also helpful in developing a better understanding of a concept among

the students.

5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Based on findings, the researcher would like to suggest other different areas for further

research,

 Effectiveness of 'activity-based science learning’ can be tested with some more

topics of science for getting more accurate results.

 This study can be conducted with other subjects like social science, language,

math, etc.

118
 The study can also be done by comparing the results class wise. Like by taking

the classification of sample i.e. students, can be done class wise, like students

of class 6 , students of class 7 and students of class 8 .

th th th

 This similar type of study can be done with different classes like 9th or 10th

class also.

 This study can be undertaken for comparing the development of problem

solving and critical thinking skills on urban or rural students and also to measure

the effect on their academic achievement.

 This study can also be undertaken for comparing the development of problem

solving and critical thinking skills between private and government school.

119