Effectiveness of the inquiry method of instruction in teaching a secondary home economics textiles unit

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the inquiry method of instruction on achievement of clothing and textiles secondary students. In addition, relationships among posttest scores, first semester clothing and textile grades, number of class sessions attended, grade classification, and teacher/student attitudes were examined.; The nonrandomized control group, pretest-posttest design was used. The experimental group was composed of seven teachers and 74 students; six teachers and 63 students formed the control group. Eight lessons using the inquiry approach developed by the researcher were used for assessment devices. The 66-item achievement test used as pretest and posttest had a reliability of.88, obtained by using the Kuder-Richardson formula 20. Two questionnaires assessed teachers' attitudes and their perception of their students' attitudes toward the inquiry method. Responses to the teacher questions indicated that teachers in the experimental group reacted favorably to the inquiry method and would use it when appropriate. Most of the teachers reported that students developed inquiry skills and mastered important concepts related to textiles. The fourth instrument assessed students' attitudes toward the instructional method and materials.; Analysis of covariance was used to test for differences in the mean gain scores between the two groups with pretest as the covariate. Scores of the experimental group were statistically higher than those of the control group ({dollar}p{dollar} {dollar}<{dollar}.035).; Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine if there were significant relationships among posttest scores of students and the independent variables. The significant regression equation ({dollar}p{dollar} {dollar}<{dollar}.0001) accounted for 55% of the variance. Pretest scores, student semester clothing and textiles grades, class attendance, teachers' attitudes, and students in the 12th grade were significant predictors of posttest achievement scores. Results indicated no significant relationships among the dependent variable and students' attitudes and grade classification of students in grades 9, 10, and 11.