The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Havruta class based on KWLM question (KWLM question creation strategy + Havruta class), general KWLM question class, and traditional lecture class on students' communicative competence and academ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Havruta class based on KWLM question (KWLM question creation strategy + Havruta class), general KWLM question class, and traditional lecture class on students' communicative competence and academic achievement in social studies class of middle school. The independent variable of this study was whether applying Havruta class based on KWLM question, and the dependent variables were communicative competence and academic achievement. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the following research questions were set.
First, are there significant differences in communicative competence among the Havruta class based on KWLM question group, the general KWLM question class group, and the traditional lecture class group in social studies class of middle school?
Second, are there significant differences in academic achievement among the Havruta class based on KWLM question group, the general KWLM question class group, and the traditional lecture class group in social studies class of middle school?
The experiments in this study were conducted on six classes of 1st graders at G Middle School in Incheon. The study was divided into three groups: experimental group I for Havruta class based on KWLM question, experimental group II for general KWLM question class, and control group for traditional lecture class. Before the experiment, the pre-communicative competence test and the pre-academic achievement test confirmed whether the three groups were the same group. After 7 weeks (14 lessons) of the three conditions were given, the post-communicative competence test and the post-academic achievement test were conducted. The results were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, and the Scheffé test was performed to verify the mean difference between the groups.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, the average of the communicative competence among the Havruta class based on KWLM question group (experiment group I), the general KWLM question class group (experiment group II), and the traditional lecture class group (control group) were 3.95, 3.55 and 3.27, respectively. ANOVA showed statistically significant differences (F=55.939, p<.05). As a result of the post-test, the Havruta class based on KWLM question group had higher communicative competence than the general KWLM question class group and the traditional lecture class group, which was statistically significant.
Second, the average of the academic achievement among the Havruta class based on KWLM question group (experiment group I), the general KWLM question class group (experiment group II), and the traditional lecture class group (control group) were 67.46, 54.63, and 55.51, respectively. ANOVA showed statistically significant differences (F=6.643, p<.05). As a result of the post-test, the Havruta class based on KWLM question group had higher academic achievement than the general KWLM question class group and the traditional lecture class group, which was statistically significant.
Conclusively, the Havruta class based on KWLM question was found to have a greater positive impact on learner's communicative competence and academic achievement than general KWLM question and traditional lecture classes in social studies class of middle school. Based on this study, follow-up studies are needed to determine whether they affect different grades, schools, or genders other than the first year of middle school. In addition, this study devised and experimented with Havruta classes that emphasized only paired conversations, further research is needed to determine whether there is a difference in the effects of Havruta classes that extend from paired conversations to group conversations and to full class conversations. In addition to the communicative competence and academic achievement, additional research on various variables such as self-directed learning, academic satisfaction and interest should be conducted.