| There were two primary purposes in this study. The first purpose was to compare the effectiveness of two teaching methods (teacher-directed instruction vs. learning cycles) for promoting mastery of the science process skills. The second purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the learning cycles experience on science teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. The participants in this study were junior and senior level elementary education majors enrolled in a science methods class at the University of Idaho. Two sections of the semester-long course were used as the study cohorts. The treatment in this study was the approach used to teach the science process skills in the laboratory portion of the course. One cohort was taught using a teacher-directed approach. The other cohort was taught using a learning cycles approach. Pretreatment assessments revealed that the cohorts were similar in terms of mean logical thinking abilities, preference toward classroom environment, and beliefs in science teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectations. However, the two groups significantly differed initially with respect to student age and proficiency in science process skills. Post-assessments revealed significant gains in science skill proficiency and teacher efficacy within each cohort. Analysis of Covariance of the posttest scores, using the pretests as covariates, showed no significant differences between the cohorts indicating that the teaching methods were equivalent in producing gains in science process skill proficiency. |
