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Inquiry-Discovery Teaching Approach as a Means to Remediate Primary Students’ Misconceptions About the Phases of the Moon

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Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of an inquiry-discovery teaching approach in remediating misconceptions about the phases of the moon was investigated. For this purpose, quantitative data analysis was employed. A test consisting of eight open-ended and 18 multiple-choice questions was administered as pre-test and post-test to 75 Year 6 primary school students from two intact classes in a school. The classes were randomly assigned into an experimental group (N = 38) instructed using an inquiry-discovery teaching approach and a comparison group (N = 37) instructed using a more traditional approach. An independent-samples t test was used to determine the treatment effect on students’ conceptual understanding about the phases of the moon. The analysis of the post-test mean scores of both groups showed a statistically significant difference favouring the experimental group (M exp = 16.62; SDexp = 1.07; M com = 11.18; SDcom = 2.34; t = 11.07, p < 0.05). A post-test analysis also indicated that students in the experimental group held fewer misconceptions about the phases of the moon than the comparison group students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hj Omar Tahir Primary School, Kedah, Malaysia

    Roslina Mohd Radzi & Kiliyarasi Muruthi

  2. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Mohd Nor Syahrir Abdullah

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  1. Roslina Mohd Radzi
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  2. Mohd Nor Syahrir Abdullah
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  3. Kiliyarasi Muruthi
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Correspondence to Roslina Mohd Radzi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Mageswary Karpudewan

  2. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain

  3. Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC), Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    A.L. Chandrasegaran

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Mohd Radzi, R., Abdullah, M.N.S., Muruthi, K. (2017). Inquiry-Discovery Teaching Approach as a Means to Remediate Primary Students’ Misconceptions About the Phases of the Moon. In: Karpudewan, M., Md Zain, A., Chandrasegaran, A. (eds) Overcoming Students' Misconceptions in Science. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3437-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3437-4_5

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