Many times during biology classes teachers encounter certain concepts or processes that require additional and illustrative explanation in order for students to comprehend them. With the help of models, teachers may recognize students’ mental models and overcome existing wrong ideas. This is so because models actually encourage investigation, understanding and communication, which makes them essential tools for thinking and scientific action.
In our research, we wanted to assess whether the usage of a lung model improves students’ knowledge about respiratory system and breathing, and whether students’ knowledge also depends on the model – if they have assembled it themselves or acquired a pre-assembled one. 115 eighth grade students from three different elementary schools have been surveyed. We prepared two lessons that were divided into three main parts: introduction, examination of the learning material and conclusion. Introduction and conclusion remained the same during both lessons. What differed was the examination. Students of “Lesson 1” received an already assembled lung model, while students of “Lesson 2” had to assemble the model by themselves with the help of learning material. We collected our data by testing the students’ knowledge about the respiratory system, and a survey questionnaire.
Results of the survey have shown that after the conducted lesson students performed better on the test about the respiratory system. Most students found the usage of a lung model useful, and they also had better understanding of the lesson. We also concluded that students who had to assemble the lung model by themselves did not in fact achieve better results at the test about the respiratory system. There were also no statistically significant differences between students that did receive a pre-assembled lung model and those who did not in tasks, relating to the structure of the respiratory tract, inhalation, exhalation, and tasks that examined higher cognitive level, established by Bloom (use and synthesis).
With this master thesis we have enhanced our understanding of models and modelling. Our findings may now help anyone who considers using a model when planning lessons of different disciplines.
|
