A STUDY OF UNDERSTANDING OF THREE DIMENSIONAL DIAGRAMS BY CHILDREN OF 6 – 8 YEARS

Abstract

No one can ignore the importance of diagrams in the textbooks specifically for the children. In the present era of technology, the importance of diagrams has increased many folds due to presentation of diagrams in different dimensions like Three Dimensional (3 – D) diagrams. No worthwhile study has so far been conducted in Pakistan regarding any role of 3 – D diagrams in learning. The present study aims to determine the age categories of the Pakistani children / students of year 6 – 8 from which they understand 3 – D diagrams to minimum and maximum extent. So that, textbook writers, developers and publishers could be suggested for introducing 3 – D diagrams in the textbooks at a very particular age in near future for the children of year 6 - 8. In-time introduction of 3 – D diagrams can make the Pakistani children more compatible at national and international level in the present scenario. For this purpose a perception test was designed for Pakistani children on the basis of a model given by Nicholson and Seddon (1977). The test was administered twice for pilot study on the advice of the panel of experts. The finalized Urdu version of the test was administered to 7212 students of class II, III, and IV in 15 tehsils of five districts of Punjab after motivating the students by administering a standardized non-verbal test of Raven (1989). Out of 7212 students 1996 only were found within the prescribed range of the age of year 6 – 8. The selected students (1996) were classified into 13 different categories with respect to their age, sex, residential area, parental education and income. Each age-year was further distributed on month-wise bases. The scores obtained by the students in the perception test were interpreted as corresponding level of understanding of 3 – D diagrams after computing month-wise average scores of each category of year – 6, 7, and 8. Month-wise averages were also computed on sex-wise and students-wise bases (including both sexes i.e. boys + girls). This pattern of analysis was maintained for all types of distribution of the sample, such as residential area-wise, parental education and income-wise. Moreover, overall averages were also computed for all students, each year, and each sex and for all types of distribution of the sample. Significant or insignificant difference between the means of different distributions was also determined. Such as, significant difference in understanding was recorded between rural boys and rural girls. The statistical analysis pointed out a low level understanding of 3 – D diagrams due to minimum average scores obtained by all the three age groups which reflected that the perception test was slightly difficult test. A similar pattern of better but gradual increased understanding was recorded in overall average scores obtained by the students xvii of year 6 – 8. Similar pattern of slightly better understanding of 3 – D diagrams was also reflected due to relatively higher scores obtained by the sampled rural students from year 6 – 8. Gradually decreasing overall average scores reflected a gradually decreasing trend of low understanding by all the three age groups of urban boys. Age-wise a gradual increase in understanding of 3-D diagrams was also recorded among sampled students, boys and girls of year 6 and 7. Average scores of boys and girls of year 6 and 7 reflected that understanding of girls about 3 – D diagrams was comparatively better than the understanding of the boys of the same age groups. Overall average scores of the students from uneducated families reflected slightly better understanding than that of the students from educated families. Overall average scores of the students from above average income group families reflected slightly better understanding than the students from below average income group families. Z test highlighted significant differences between the mean scores of rural boys vs. rural girls, urban boys vs. urban girls of year – 7; and total boys vs. total girls. The results of item analysis proved the effectiveness of all distracters of the perception test. Only two items were not differentiating between high achievers and low achievers. All of the items need to be re-arranged logically with respect to the vales of ‘p’, few difficult items can be replaced with easy items age-wise allocated items be administered for standardization. After rearranging the sequence of the items, two most difficult and two easiest items should be dropped and rest of the thirty six items should be classified into three age groups equally. First twelve items should be allocated for year – 6 next twelve for year – 7, and last twelve for year – 8.