The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of project learning process and performance when TAOK students who have a personality variable that influence positive life attitude to themselves and to others participate in as a member of small...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of project learning process and performance when TAOK students who have a personality variable that influence positive life attitude to themselves and to others participate in as a member of small groups on construction practice class in the technical high school.
To achieve the goals of this experiment, the randomized posttest-only control group design as a true experimental design was employed in this study. In this design, the effectiveness to control threats obstructing internal and external validity is especially excellent.
The population of this study is architectural department students and relating architectural department students in the technical high school throughout the nation. The samples for the experiment were 2nd grade architectural department 72 students of technical high schools that were selected three region of the National Capital districts, the middle districts and the southern districts. The subjects were instructed the theory and the knowledges of light-weight wood frame construction. And they also attended interaction program developed by Transactional analysis and were tested their egograms. The results of egogram analysis is that the score of FC is the highest and the score of CP is relatively low. High FC scores mean that students think and express their thoughts freely. And low CP scores means students have immoderate and loose personality traits.
After egogram analysis was tested, life attitude map were drawn. 25% of students(18) were classified into I'm OK-You're OK group and 50% of students(36) were grouped into I'm OK-You're not OK group. According to the results of egogram test, 9 small groups were composed, including TAOK students and 9 small groups without TAOK students were also composed of through random assignment method. Each small group was composed of 4 members.
The independent variables were TAOK student's participation as a small group member of cooperative learning in the project instruction. So the project instruction as experimental treatment was same between experimental group and comparison group. The dependent variable was project learning effect of small groups.
The effect of project performance and students' verbal interactions in small group learning processes were investigated.
The process and the results of project task performance were measured through the teacher observation and the performance assessment. The validity of the instrument was verified by experts in the filed of technology education.
The reliability of the instruments for measuring project performance was .718 by Pearson correlation coefficient. The statistical techniques used for data analysis were t-test and X2 with an alpha level of .05.
After the target small group was video- taped, students' verbal interaction was written into transcripts. Their interactions and transaction patterns were analysed through the frame of verbal interaction.
The major findings of this study were as follows:
1) The total score of the project performance assessment was a statistically significant difference(p<.05). The average score(75.3) of project performance ability in the experimental small groups was higher than the average score(63.2) of the comparison small groups. And this shows the small groups that TAOK students participated in were more effective on project learning than the small groups that no TAOK students participated in. Among the subordinate factors of project performance ability, purposing ability and executing ability showed especially significant difference.
2) The frequencies of knowledge construction turns were a statistically significant difference(p<.05). The frequencies of the knowledge construction turns of the experimental small groups were much more than those of the comparison small groups. And this show the verbal interaction in small groups that TAOK students participated in were more active than the small groups that no TAOK students participated in.
3) The patterns of communication transactions were examined. In the experimental small groups the percentage of complementary transaction was higher than the others. On the contrary, in the comparison small groups, the percentage of crossed transaction was higher than the others.
There is no psychological stroke difference between two groups.
In conclusion, TAOK students had influenced on both small group activities and project performance. When TAOK students participated in the small groups as a member, the verbal interaction increase sharply and that has a positive influence on the project process and performance. That is to say, that's effective.
It is necessary to consider the egostates of students when classifying students into project small groups according to their abilities in project learning.