Abstract
The present study investigated the effect of Constructivist Approach on Attitude of Pupil Teacher of Biology at B.Ed. level. The sample of the study was Pupil Teacher of Biology of B.Ed. Class. Researcher had to applied orientation on pupil teachers to know the attitude towards the constructivist approach, so researcher organized a orientation program with the help of developed instructional material. Experimental group get the treatment of orientation of constructivist approach with the help of developed instructional material and the controlled group get the treatment of orientation of constructivist approach without the help of developed instructional material and after completed of orientation program researcher administered the attitude scale to know the attitude of pupil teacher towards the constructivist approach.
Statistical analysis reveals that the developed instructional material based on constructivist approach has affected the attitude of pupil teachers towards the constructivist approach. It means if pupil teachers are oriented with the help of developed instructional material their attitude towards constructivist approach will be tempered.
Key Words- constructivist approach, instructional material, Attitude
Introduction
Today as we focus our attention on giving quality education to million of children in our schools, we find a paradigm shift taking place in the basic process of education-from ‘teaching to learning’ to helping to know. These days we quite often come across questions among the academics and educational researchers like: Are we justified in ‘loading’ the child’s head with tons of knowledge? Are we doing right thing by giving the learner what we know? Apart from the issues like correctness of what we know and the transmission losses in giving and does teaching mean depositing the knowledge, if so, what is self-life of such knowledge: how long such knowledge is relevant: how much can be received, contained and retained by the learner. This perplexity has reined the field of education and for a long period of time we were content with depositing the accumulated knowledge ignoring the burden of learning on the part of children. This has lead to high dropout-rate and increasing level of anxiety resultant to frustration among learners.Even before aversion to learning has arisen in the minds of our young learners, it is augury that we have not only realized limits in bookish learning but started looking for batter ways of ensuring learning through effective ways of teaching, If knowledge is not to be seen as a ‘community’ to be acquired through transmission, but as a subjective experience then learning is required to take place within the individual. Learners are creating their own knowledge through the process of understanding during their encounters with reality-involving objects, person and events. It is not utopian or platonic ideal but experiencing the empirical reality through myriads of encounters resulting in schematizations of being and reorganization of being known, the process of assimilation and accommodation facilitate construction of reality as one’s own knowledge.
What is Constructivism?
Constructivism is a view of learning based on the belief that knowledge isn’t a thing that can be simply given by the teacher at the front of the room to students in their desks. Rather, knowledge is constructed by learners through an active, mental process of development; learners are the
builders and creators of meaning and knowledge. Constructivism draws on the developmental work of Piaget (1977) and Kelly (1991). Twomey Fosnot (1989) defines constructivism by reference to four principles: learning, in an important way, depends on what we already know; new ideas occur as we adapt and change our old ideas; learning involves inventing ideas rather than mechanically accumulating facts; meaningful learning occurs through rethinking old ideas and coming to new conclusions about new ideas which conflict with our old ideas. A productive, constructivist classroom, then, consists of learner-centered, active instruction. In such a classroom, the teacher provides students with experiences that allow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, investigate, imagine, and invent. The teacher’s role is to facilitate this process.
Constructivism is not a unified concept and different interpretations of it can be found, although the interpretation of construction differs from one-another (Philleps, 1995). Common benefits like focus on authentic tasks, embededness of task in challenging and complex task environment, are shared (Savery and Duffy, 2004)
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
The objectives of the present study are as follows:
- To make a content analysis of class XI Biology text book in view of Constructivist approach.
- To develop instructional materials for adopting constructivist approach in teaching of Biology
- To study the effect of developed Instructional Material on attitude of pupil teachers towards Constructivist approach.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:
There will be no significant difference between attitude of pupil teachers towards the Constructivist approach of controlled and experimental group.
VARIABLES OF THE STUDY:
In the experimental phase of the study the following variables will be taken into consideration:
(a) Independent variables: – Developed Instructional Material
(b) Dependent variables: Attitude towards Constructivist Approach
(c) Controlled variables: – Pupil teacher, subject, content and level of intelligence.
DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY: In view of restricted time and resources, the study was limited to:
(1) Secondary school of Agra which offers Biology.
(2) The school located in Agra under Uttar Pradesh Madhyamic Shiksha Parishad Allahabad.
(3) The study was delimited to class XI Biology subject.
(4) B. Ed students was be taken as pupil teacher.
SAMPLES
For this study, pupil teachers were treated as sample and number of samples for pupil teachers is 40 and they was divided into two equal half and one half were be studied as experimental group and other as controlled group.fix the purpose of collection date the investigator selected institution of Agra city. In present student the pupil teacher selected from the faculty of Education, DEI, selected by purposive sampling method An experiment involves the comparison of the effect of the particular treatment with that of a different treatment or of no treatment. In a sample convention experiment reference is usually made to an experimental group and to control group.
Group Assignment: In this study group assignment as following:
(A) Experimental group: An experiment is conducted on a sample or group of subjects. The group which is assigned to the experimental variable or treatment is known as experiment group.
(B) Controlled Group: The effectiveness of experimental variable is examined by comparing with controlled variable. The group which is allotted to control variable is termed as controlled group.in care of pupil teacher these group also made, but the general orientation of Constructivist approach given all the sample together, but investigator divided the whole sample into two group when investigator organize the orientation of constructivist approach with the help of developed instructional material. There group divided into randomly on the bases of odd and even number so the experimental group get the treatment of orientation of constructivist approach without the help of developed instructional material
Table No.1-Showing the Treatment of the Groups
| Experimental group | Controlled group | |||||
| Sample | Treatment | Duration | Sample | Treatment | Duration | |
| Pupil teacher Number=20 | Orientation of constructivist approach with the help of developed instructional material | 10 period | Pupil teacher Number=20 | Orientation of constructivist approach with the help of developed instructional material | 10 period | |
Tool of the Study: The following tool used in this study
Attitude scale towards the constructivist approach (ASTCA)
In order to obtain reliable and valid results, the selection of appropriate tool is the primary condition in research work. The investigator surveyed the test available in field of constructivist approach but could not find any suitable tools test for measuring the attitude of pupil teacher towards the constructivist approach. Hence the investigator decided to construct the required test of their own.
Procedure of the study:
Development of instructional material Based on Constructivist Approach: The researcher developed instructional material based on constructivist approach and there are the following step of developing instructional material:
Content analysis
¯
Selection of topic appropriate for Constructivist Approach
¯
Preparation of lessons plan based on Constructivist Approach
¯
Review of lessons plan by subject experts
¯
Modification of lessons plan as per expert opinion
¯
Try out of some sample lesson plan
¯
Modification of lessons plan on the basis of experiments of try out
¯
Preparation of final drafts of the lesson
Flow Chart -2- Showing Development of instructional material Based on Constructivist Approach
Content analysis of Biology text book in view of constructivist approach:
In this research, before developing instructional material firstly we had to decide some topics of class XI Biology text book, and on the basis of their topics we had to make some lesson plans, so basically investigator decided some topic from XI Biology text book, these topic almost cover all the units of the books. So this is because though this we can easily make a differentiation on the topics. So we selected the entire topic and the topic is given in the appendix of the thesis.
Development of instructional material: The research developed instructional material based on constructivist approach and these are following step.
(A) Content analysis:
(B) Selection of topic appropriated for constructivist approach after introductory analysis of class XI Biology text book.
(C) Preparation of lesson plan based on constructivist approach
The philosophy about learning that proposes learners need to build their own understanding of new idea has been labeled constructivism. Much Psychologist such as jean, plaget, Eleanor. Duckworth, George Hein and Howard Gardener have explored these ideas in depth. The biological science curriculum study (BSCS) (a) test whose principal investigator is Roger By bee developed an instructional model for constructivism called the “Five Es”.
Review of lesson plans by subject experts
Prepared lesson plan was given to the 5 experts of related field, all the expert was free to make any correction any suggestion and the format and all the related material also given to the subject expert so that they can make required review in the developed lesson plans.
Modifications of lesson plans
After review of lesson plans by the subject experts given modification by the experts were made in the entire lesson plan.
Try out of some lesson plan
After the modification in the lesson plan administered in the small group during the practical teaching of people teacher the language problem was found in lesson plan so certain modification were made in the lesson plan so that researcher also used some video and some ppt. for the teaching of their plans so that student take more interest in such kind of format.
Preparation of final draft of the lesson plan
The lesson plan is prepared in the final stage for its use in the real class situation
Phase II- interactive phase
Implementation of developed instructional material in orientation of people teacher in this phase researcher have to organized a orientation program with the people teacher to see the effectiveness and attitude of people teacher towards constructivist approach.
In the orientation program we have to clear the concept the people teacher towards the constructivist approach so that we have to state this was basis of this approach so researcher decided to organize the orientation program on the people teacher of biology group in the faculty of Education DEI Agra in the orientation program the all researcher made the two group experimental and control group on the basis of odd and even no. of their roll no. in the biology group of people teacher.
Sample |
Experimental | Controlled |
| Pupil Teacher | 20 | 20 |
To make a content analysis of class XI Biology text book in view of Constructivist Approach.
In the present study, before developing instructional material firstly the researcher had to decided some topics of class XI Biology text book, and on the basis of those topics the researcher had to made some lesson plans, so basically investigator decided some topics from XI Biology text books, these topics almost covered all the units of the book. So this was because though this we can easily make a differentiation on the topics. So investigator selected the entire topic
To develop instructional materials for adopting constructivist approach in teaching of Biology
The research developed instructional material based on constructivist approach and these are following steps were followed.
- Content analysis
- Selection of topic appropriated for constructivist approach after introductory analysis of class XI Biology text book.
- Preparation of lesson plan based on constructivist approach
The philosophy about learning that proposes learners need to build their own understanding of new idea has been labeled as constructivism. Much Psychologist such as Jean, Elearnor. Duckworth, George Hein and Howard Gardener have explored these ideas in depth. The Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) test, whose principal investigator is Roger Bee developed an instructional model for constructivism called the “Five Es”.
Review of lesson plans by subject experts
Prepared lesson plans were given to the 5 experts of related field, All the expert were free to make any correction any suggestion regarding the format and all the related material were also given to the subject expert so as to can make the required review in the developed lesson plans.
Modifications of lesson plans
After review of lesson plans by the subject expert’s desired modification were made in the lesson plans.
Try out of some lesson plan
After the modification, the lesson plans were administered on a the small group during the practical teaching of pupil teacher Language problem was found in lesson plans So certain modification were further made in the lesson plans and researcher also used some video and Power Point Presentations. For the teaching of these plans to the student take more interest in such kind of format.
Preparation of final draft of the lesson plan
The lesson plan thus prepared in the final stage is appropriate for its use in the real class situation
Phase II- interactive phase
During this phase implementation of developed instructional material in orientation of pupil teacher the researcher had organized a orientation program with the pupil teacher to observe the effectiveness and attitudes of pupil teacher towards constructivist approach.
In the orientation program the concept of constructivist approach were clarified to the pupil teacher, to make thus base for constructivist approach so that we have to state this is basis of this approach so researcher decided to organize the orientation program on the pupil teacher of biology group in the faculty of education DEI Agra in the orientation program so the researcher made the two groups viz. experimental and control group on the basis of odd and even no. of their roll no. in the biology group of pupil teacher.
Table 2–to showing the no. of pupil teacher
| Group | Experimental | Controlled |
| Pupil teachers | 20 | 20 |
To study the effect of developed Instructional Material on attitude of pupil teachers towards Constructivist approach.
After development of instructional material, researcher had to applied orientation on pupil teachers to know the attitude towards the constructivist approach, so researcher organized a orientation program with the help of developed instructional material. Experimental group get the treatment of orientation of constructivist approach with the help of developed instructional material and the controlled group get the treatment of orientation of constructivist approach without the help of developed instructional material and after completed of orientation program researcher administered the attitude scale to know the attitude of pupil teacher towards the constructivist approach.
Table: 3- Showing Phase Second
| Phase- Implementation of developed Instructional Material in orientation of pupil teachers – | |||||||
| Experimental Group | Controlled Group | ||||||
| Sample | Treatment | Duration | ResearchTool | Sample | Treatment | Duration | Research Tool |
|
Pupil Teachers N=20 |
Orientation of Constructivist Approach with the help of Developmental Instructional Material. | 10 PERIODS (ONE PERIOD PER DAY) | Attitude Scale toward the constructivist approach |
Pupil Teachers N=20 |
Orientation of Constructivist Approach without the help of Developmental Instructional Material. | 10 PERIODS (ONE PERIOD PER DAY) | Attitude Scale toward constructivist approach |
After organizing the orientation program researcher had to administer the attitude scale to know the attitude of pupil teacher towards the constructivist approach.
Table: 4 Showing mean, S.D., C.R. and P values the post-test score of controlled and experimental group of pupil teachers on attitude scale
| Group | Mean | S.D. | df | t | Level of Significance |
| Experimental | 118 | 6.38 | 38 | 4.03 | P < .01 |
| Controlled | 110.55 | 12.73 |
From the table 4 it can be seen that calculated t value of mean difference between experimental and controlled group is 4.03 that more than table value on 38 df at 1.97 at 0.05 level of significance and 2.59 at .01 level of significance, hence it can be said that there is significant difference between the means of experimental and controlled. On the basis of t value, it can be generalized that attitude of pupil teacher of experimental group of orientation program were found better than that of attitude of controlled group.
Thus our hypothesis that there will be no significant difference between attitude of pupil teachers towards the Constructivist approach of controlled and experimental group is accepted.
Showing mean, S.D., values the post-test score of controlled and experimental group of pupil teachers on attitude scale
It is well known that data do not speak for themselves. They reveal what the analyst can defect. Therefore the usual analysis approach is to begin with the descriptive statistics and then turn to address specific related to the study using inferential statistics and graphical representation.
In present study mean and SD have been calculated as descriptive statistics t test has been applied to test the hypothesis. Statistical analysis reveals that the developed instructional material based on constructivist approach has affected the attitude of pupil teachers towards the constructivist approach. It means if pupil teachers are oriented with the help of developed instructional material their attitude towards constructivist approach will be tempered.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Due to having the nature of the study experimental researcher only focuses some concrete findings for use of other researcher. The nature of Educational phenomena in different from the nature of physical phenomena. Physical phenomena are numerical or quantitative. On the other hand, social phenomena are abstract or qualitative. Qualitative phenomena in their turn are ambiguous and complex. it is due to this fact that clear ,result are not easily available in social research. In order to achieve results from facts gathered through survey and other methods, several technique are utilized .context analysis is one of them. In order to arrive at results from the collected data, it is necessary to classify it.
FINDING RELATED TO THE OBJECTIVES-1
In the present study, before developing instructional material firstly the researcher had to decided some topics of class XI Biology text book, and on the basis of those topics the researcher had to made some lesson plans, so basically investigator decided some topics from XI Biology text books, these topics almost covered all the units of the book. So this is because though this we can easily make a differentiation on the topics.
FINDING RELATED TO THE OBJECTIVES-2
The third objectives of the study was “to develop constructivism based instructional material for biology teaching”. The Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) test, was carried for the development of constructivist approach based instructional material for teaching of biology. During this phase the draft was validated by two biology teachers and then field tested on a group
FINDING RELATED TO THE OBJECTIVES-3
It can be seen that calculated t value of mean difference between experimental and controlled group is 4.03 that more than table value on 38 df at 1.97 at 0.05 level of significance and 2.59 at .01 level of significance, hence it can be said that there is significant difference between the means of experimental and controlled. On the basis of t value, it can be generalized that attitude of pupil teacher of experimental group of orientation program were found better than that of attitude of controlled group. Thus our hypothesis that there will be no significant difference between attitude of pupil teachers towards the Constructivist approach of controlled and experimental group is selected.
It is well known that data do not speak for themselves. They reveal what the analyst can defect. Therefore the usual analysis approach is to begin with the descriptive statistics and then turn to address specific related to the study using inferential statistics and graphical representation.
In present study mean and SD have been calculated as descriptive statistics t test has been applied to test the hypothesis. Statistical analysis reveals that the developed instructional material based on constructivist approach has affected the attitude of pupil teachers towards the constructivist approach. It means if pupil teachers are oriented with the help of developed instructional material their attitude towards constructivist approach will be tempered.
CONCLUSION
On the grounds of the findings related to the objectives of the explorative research phases of the study. It can be summarized that the present day students and teachers as well are victims of overloaded academic syllabi. Students are mostly expected to remember a large amount of incoherent informative facts without systematic arrangement of those factual quanta of knowledge prior to explaining them to students. As a result students generally feet cognitively overburdened and gradually lose their interest in various academic streams.
Constructivism learning is recognized as a valuable technique to increase the depth of understanding of scientific ideas through students building their own knowledge through inquiry-based exercise (Brooks and Brooks, 1993). There is also evidence that students taught by constructivist methods learn biology concepts better than those taught even by talented lecturers (Hake, 1998).
Scott (1987) defines a constructivist in biology as one who “perceive students as active learners who come to science lessons already holding ideas about natural phenomena, which they use to make sense of everyday experiences. Such a process is one in which learners actively make sense of the world by constricting meaning
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[1] Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed university), Dayalbagh, Agra
[2] Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Dayalbagh Educational Institute(Deemed university), Dayalbagh, Agra
