Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of “constructivist teaching strategies [CTS]” and “traditional teaching strategies [TTS]” on students’ understanding of plant nutrient and energy concepts. Four experienced teachers were involved in this study as the collaborating teachers. Two of them were assigned to the experimental group using CTS to teach biology, while the other two employed TTS to teach biology to the subjects in the control group. The subjects, both in the experimental group (286 students) and the control group (297 students), received instructions on plant nutrients and energy for nine 45-minute class periods. Students’ understanding of plant nutrient and energy concepts were assessed by the Biology Concept Diagnostic Test — Plant Nutrients and Energy (BCDT-PNE), developed in this study. By analyzing the differences in pretest-posttest scores of BCDT-PNE between the experimental group and the control group, the effects of CTS and TTS on learning of plant nutrient and energy concepts were investigated. The results of the study indicated that the CTS produced significantly better result than did TTS on facilitating students’ learning of PNE concepts as assessed by the BCDT-PNE; particularly on the learning of concepts related to “the patterns of plant nutrition,” “the sources of plant nutrient,” “the sources of starch,” “the influences of photo-synthesis on plant growth,” “the occasions of respiration,” “the locations of respiration” and “the influences of light on light and dark reaction.”
| Keywords: | concept learning; constructivist teaching strategies; plant nutrients and energy |
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