EFFECTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL DISCOVERY LEARNING EXPERIENCES ON PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE CHEMISTRY.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of discovery learning opportunities in Arizona secondary chemistry classrooms and to determine their relationship to performance in selected areas of freshman college chemistry at the University of Arizona. For the purpose of this study two questionnaires were developed, one to gather data relating to students' participation in discovery learning activities in high school chemistry and the other to assess their use of learning resources at the University of Arizona. Interviews were conducted with 15 volunteers from the subjects of this study. The information provided by these volunteers concerning their high school chemistry background was consistent with information obtained from the questionnaires. Examination and laboratory scores were obtained from the records of the chemistry department, to assess student performance in lecture and laboratory. The students' responses on the Learning Activities Questionnaire were used to form a discovery index score, which was correlated with college chemistry examination scores, college laboratory scores, and student-reported use of learning resources. The lack of relationship between the discovery index scores and college chemistry examination scores was indicated by a partial correlation of -.10 which was not statistically significant at the .05 level. A statistically significant partial correlation of .20 indicated the discovery index scores were related to college laboratory scores. No significant relationship was found between discovery index scores and students' use of learning resources at the University as indicated by the Pearson correlation of .15, which was not significant at the .05 level.