THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING APPROACHES FOR CONCEPT ATTAINMENT AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Abstract

Traditionally the process of teaching involved three major components, teacher, learner and content. Teachers’ role was to teach the content contained in the text to the learner. Teaching was considered effective when the learner was able to retrieve the information when and where necessary and was able to apply it accurately. Now teaching is known as the systematic process which involves teacher, learner, material and learning environment. Effective teaching is that which enables the learners to incorporate new information into their memories and master new knowledge. This study analyzes the effectiveness of teaching approaches i.e. inductive and deductive for Mathematical concept attainment at elementary level. The major objectives of the study were to analyze the effect of deductive teaching method on students’ concept attainment, to measure the effect of inductive teaching method on students’ mathematical concept attainment and to analyze the comparative effectiveness of inductive and deductive teaching methods on elementary students’ mathematical concepts attainment. All the 7th class students in Federal Government schools of Islamabad were the population of the study. One secondary school was selected through convenience sampling for the study. The independent variable of teaching methodology was manipulated into inductive teaching approach and deductive teaching approach for the experimental and control group respectively. An overall sample of 60 students was taken from the selected school using stratified sampling technique. These 60 students were divided equally into experimental and control groups through random sampling. A pre test – post test control groups design was followed in the study. Twenty five concepts from 7th class textbook were selected keeping in view the representation of sets, algebra and geometry portions. The researcher developed 25 lesson plans each in light of the principles of concept attainment model using inductive and deductive approach to teach the students of experimental and control groups respectively. A researcher-made 100 item academic achievement test, based on 8 tasks paradigm was administered to each group as pre test as well viii as post test. The mean difference between post test and pre test scores was taken as the academic achievement of the students. The results of the study approved that all three groups i.e. low, average and high achievers of experimental group taught through inductive teaching approach performed better than the control group which was taught through deductive teaching method. It is therefore concluded that inductive teaching approach is significantly more effective than deductive teaching approach for concept attainment at elementary level. The major recommendations of the study included that teachers may use inductive teaching method for teaching concepts of mathematics at elementary level. Moreover this methodology should be encouraged at higher grades as well.