look at the file

STUDY THREE: PEER TEACHING

Ms. Isokay is a researcher who is interested in instructional strategies for teaching science. She wants to see if a learning strategy called peer teaching will improve middle school student’s understanding of science. In peer teaching students take turns explaining concepts to each other and identifying questions that they discuss in small groups. She sets up a study and recruits a local science teacher whose usual teaching method is lecture and whole group discussion to take part in her study. The teacher agrees to use four of his science classes in the study. Ms Isokay explains the process of peer teaching to the teacher and trains him to guide two of his classes in this approach. For the other two classes he will use his usual lecture and whole group discussion approach. Ms. Isokay randomly assigns two classes to be in the peer teaching group and two to be the lecture and whole class discussion group. She then gives a pretest of knowledge of science to all four classes. The pretest consists of 30 multiple choice and short answer questions that were based on the major concepts and skills identified in the science curriculum.

The teacher then teaches all four classes for six weeks using either the peer teaching or the lecture and whole class discussion approach that he usually uses. Ms. Isokay helps to facilitate the discussions in the peer teaching group classes, but she only sits and observes in the back of the lecture and whole group discussion. The teacher uses the same textbook, labs, and handouts for all groups. At the end of the semester, student knowledge of science is measured by having the classes all take the same final exam which consists of 30 multiple choice and short answer questions again based on major science concepts and skills identified in the science curriculum. Ms. Isokay compares the performance of students in the four classes on the pretest and the posttest. The results of the pretest and posttest are listed below.

PRETEST RESULTS

Peer teaching groups mean = 66

Lecture and whole group discussion mean = 67

Statistical tests indicate that the two groups performed about the same on the pretest at the start of the study There was no significant difference between the group means. (p>.05)

POSTTEST RESULTS Peer teaching groups mean = 92

Lecture and whole group discussion mean = 84

Statistical tests indicate that at the end of the study, the two groups performed differently on the posttest at the end of the study There was a significant difference between the group means. (p<.05)

Identity the independent and dependent variables in this study.

Independent variable:

Dependent variable:

Write a directional research hypothesis and an operational definition for the dependent variable. Directional Research Hypothesis:

Operational Definition of Dependent Variable:

The difference between the pretests for the two groups was not statistically significant. However, the posttest differences were significantly different. Explain what it means to get a statistically significant result with a p<.05. Should Prof. Isokay reject or accept the null hypothesis?