PREPARED BY:

NUR AMANI BINTI ABDUL RANI

S-PM0181/13
PLG 537

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

The Comparative Effects of Prediction/DiscussionBased Learning Cycle, Conceptual Change Text and
Traditional Instructions on Student Understanding of
Genetics
by
Diba Yilmaz, Ceren Tekkaya & Semra Sungur (2011)
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

INTRODUCTION
Genetics - one of the most important and difficult topics of science
to learn.
Major reasons of students incomplete understanding of genetics
concepts lie under :
i.
the ontological differences between the levels
of genetics phenomena (Duncan & Reiser, 2007)
i.
abstract nature of concepts (Law & Lee, 2004)
ii. relatedness of these concepts to different levels
organizations (Marbach-Ad & Stavy, 2000).

of

Cont.
Individuals should have an understanding of basic concepts of
genetics in order to be effective scientific literate citizens in the
future.

Teaching strategies:
Prediction/Discussion-based Learning Cycle
(HPD-LC)
Conceptual Change Text (CCT)
Traditional Instruction (TI)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the effect of HPD-LC instruction, CCT
instruction, and traditional instruction on eight-grade
students understanding and retention of genetics
concepts?
2. Is there a change in students' understanding of
genetics across the three time periods: before the
instruction, after the instruction, and one month after
the instruction?

METHOD
PARTICIPANTS:
i. Sample 81 Grade 8 (32 boys and 49 girls) students

ii. 3 intact classes of a public elementary school (urban area)

iii. Taught same teacher (25 years of teaching experience)
iv. Randomly assigned as a HPD-LC class (N=30), CCT class
(N=25) and TI class (N=26)
v. Statistically comparable in the terms of students age and
overall grade point average in science

Cont.
STUDY DESIGN:
i. Quasi-experimental design-Non-equivalent control group
ii. Dependent variable: students understanding of the unit of
genetics (Genetics Concept Test)
iii. Independent variable: time (Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3) and
mode of instruction (HPD-LC, CCT, and TI)

iv. The treatment conducted over 5-week period

v. The science lesson were offered as three 40- minute periods per
week (total of 600 minutes of instruction)

Cont.
INSTRUMENTS:
i. The Genetics Concept Test (GCT)
ii. Assesses students understanding of basic concepts of genetics
iii. 15 multiple-choice items (one correct answer and three
distracters)
iv. Content validity determined by experts in biology education,
science teacher and research assistant
v. The reliability coefficient
Richardson Formula 20)

was found to be 0.73 (Kuder-

Cont.
TREATMENT:
PREDICTION/DISCUSSION-BASED
LEARNING
CYCLE
(HPD-LC) INSTRUCTION
i. Two lesson was developed (basic terminology of genetics
and passing of traits, Mendelian genetics and genetics
crosses)
CONCEPTUAL CHANGE TEXT (CCT) INSTRUCTION
i. Covering basic terminology of genetics, Mendelian
genetics, inheritance, and genetics crosses
ii. Prepared by 1st author
iii. Considering 4 condition proposed by Posner et al. (1982)
TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTION

RESULT
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics

Table 2: Multiple comparisons of genetics

understanding by mode of instruction

DISCUSSION
HPD-LC and CCT instructions promoted better understanding of
the genetics concepts compared with the TI.
HPD-LC Attributed to several reasons:

i. Problem sheets were designed to elicit students pre existing

conceptions
ii. Students were actively involved in the learning process and
constructed their own knowledge
iii. Student relate the newly learned concepts with each other and
with the existing one
iv. Students extend their newly constructed knowledge by
applying them to new situations

Cont.
CCT explained as follows:
i. Were designed according to Posner et al (1982) four condition:
Dissatisfaction - students dissatisfied with their existing
knowledge
Intelligibility - students understand the meaning of the new
concept
Plausibility - students must find it believable
Fruitfulness - students can solve other problems using the
new concept
ii.

Students were involved in activities that helped them revise

their prior knowledge and struggle with their misconception.

Cont.
These findings are consistent with the numerous studies:
i. investigating the effectiveness of the learning cycle (e.g.
Barman et al., 1996; Lavoie, 1999; Marek et al., 1994
Schneider & Renner, 1980) and conceptual text instruction
(e.g. Chambers & Andre, 1997; Wang & Andre, 1991) over TI
ii. (Lavoie, 1999) comparing the effects of HPD-LC and a
traditional learning cycle, HPD-LC was found to be more
effective than the traditional learning cycle in improving
conceptual understanding.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

i. sample size of each instructional group was small, ranging from

25 to 30
ii. the degree to which the teacher adhered to the exact treatment
designs on a daily basis is not known
iii. multiple-choice test administered in the study was not designed
specifically to diagnose students misconceptions

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

i. Pre-service and in-service science teachers should be informed

about the usage, integration and importance of such strategies

ii. Curriculum developers should also consider these teaching

strategies while developing new science curricula in order to
increase students achievement in science learning.

CONCLUSION

i. Findings of the present study indicated that when students

received appropriate instruction in helping them to
understand relevant ideas, sound understanding of genetics
concepts could be achieved.
ii. The findings suggest the use of HPD-LC and CCT
instructions as alternatives to TI to enhance students
genetics understanding and retention.

THANK YOU