The Effect of Storylines Embedded within Context Based Learning Approach on Grade 10 Students’ Achievement of Mixtures Unit

Year 2018, Volume: 9 , 127 - 133, 18.08.2018

Hulya Demırcıoglu Funda Demetgul

Abstract

The
purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of storylines embedded within
the context-based learning approach on grade 10 students’ achievement of the
mixtures unit and attitudes towards chemistry. Within a quasi-experimental design, the study was
conducted with conducted with 48 10th grade students drawn from two intact
classes in a high school. One of classes was randomly assigned to experimental
group and the other to control group. The experimental group was exposed to the
context-based materials, while the control group was taught with the
traditional approach (teacher’s explanation, question and answer, writing,
etc.). The teaching intervention
which took a couple of classroom hours (2x45 minutes; 8 weeks) in the
experimental group was designed to actively engage the students in the context
based learning. The Mixtures Unit Achievement Test (MUAT) and Chemistry Attitude Scale (CAS) were used to collect data. MUAT with ten open-ended items was constructed by the authors. The results of this study
indicated that the use of storylines embedded within the context-based learning
approach resulted in the students in the experimental group performing better
with respect to understanding concepts in the mixtures unit. Some suggestions
are made on implications for practice and learning.

Keywords

Context-based learning approach, Mixtures unit, Attitude, Chemistry

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