The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of problem-based learning method of instruction, when compared to lecture-type instructional method, on problem solving ability and sociality in elementary school.
The specific research question in...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of problem-based learning method of instruction, when compared to lecture-type instructional method, on problem solving ability and sociality in elementary school.
The specific research question in this study includes the followings;
1) To identify the effects of problem solving ability in the problem-based learning when compare to the lecture-type instructional method.
2) To identify the effects sociality in the problem-based learning when compare to the lecture-type instructional method.
The main hypotheses tested were as follows;
1) There will be a significant effect in problem solving ability of problem-based learning then lecture-type instructional method.
2) There will be a significant effect in sociality of problem-based learning then lecture - type instructional method.
The subjects of this study were 60 second-grade elementary school student. They were assigned to experimental group and control group and participated in the experiment during four weeks from the first week of September to forth week of September.
The instruction lasted 12 sessions, each session consisting of 40 minutes. The experimental instruments used in this study were a pre-problem solving ability test, a pre-sociality test, a post-problem solving ability test, and a post-sociality test.
The method of statistical analysis to test the hypotheses of this study was the analysis of Compare Means(T-test) using SPSSWIN 10.0.
The main findings obtained from the results and discussion of this study were as follows;
1) There was a significant difference in problem-solving ability of problem-based learning then lecture-type instructional method.(t=2.331, p<.05) Namely, Problem-based learning group significantly better than lecture-type instructional group on the problem solving ability scores.
2) There was a significant difference in sociality of problem-based learning then lecture-type instructional method.(t=5.27, p<.05) Namely, problem-based learning group significantly better than lecture-type instructional group on the sociality. Consequently, hypotheses 1, 2 were accepted. The above results could be taken as the indication that the problem-based learning could be applied in more subjects to improve problem-solving ability and sociability.