The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of project activities by subject-matters integration on the ability of self-directed learning. The specific problems of this study were as follows:
First, is there any difference between projec...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of project activities by subject-matters integration on the ability of self-directed learning. The specific problems of this study were as follows:
First, is there any difference between project activities group by subject-matters integration and traditional group on the ability of self-directed learning?
Second, is there any difference between project activities group by subject-matters integration end traditional group in the characteristics of sub-domains of the self-directed learning?
The main hypotheses tested were as follows:
(1) The group of project activities by subject-matter integration will be higher than the group of non-project activities on the ability of self-directed learning.
(2) The group of project activities by subject-matter integration will be higher than the group of non-project activities in the characteristics of sub-domains of the self-directed learning.
The subjects in this study were 60 first-grade elementary students. They were assigned equally to experimental and control group. Experimental group had an experience on project instruction during 6 months(April to September). Control group had a traditional instruction during that period.
The experimental instruments used in this study were the prior scores of basic achievement test to verify group homogeneity, the test of self-directed learning abilities to identify the treatment effects. The dependent variable was the scores of self-directed learning abilities. The project activities by subject-matter integration was applied to test the effects of treatment. Focusing on the topics of integrated subject-matter "Sulgiroun Sangwhal", the topics of all subject in the 1st grade were reorganized to facilitate students' participation with interest.
The experimental design of this study was pre and post test experimental control group design. T-test was applied to test differences of pre and post teat scores in two groups using SPSS Win 10.0. The significance level was 5%. The main findings obtained from the results and discussion of this study were as follows:
(l) The group of project activities by subject-matter integration was higher than the group of non-project activities on the ability of self-directed learning.
(2) On the 5 sub-domains of self-directed learning ability, P-values were all significant on motivation, autonomy, problem-solving. responsibility, independence, respectively. But, play domain was not significantly different.
In qualitative analyses, the group of project activities by subject-matter integration demonstrated more active performance attitude.
Consequently, it revealed that project activities by subject-matter integration were more effective than traditional instruction in promoting self-directed learning ability.