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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 11, Issue 2, Article 4 (Dec., 2010) |
This study examined predictor variables for pre-service teacher achievement in physics as well as the relationships among them. The findings indicate that:
1. Physics achievement significantly and positively correlated with the elaboration, organization, comprehension monitoring and rehearsal strategy clusters of R-LSSPL. This indicates that pre-service teachers who use these strategy clusters tend to be higher achievers in physics than those who do not. It has also been demonstrated by this study that gender and attitude as predictor variables have no significant effect on pre-service teacher success in physics.
2. Small but significant correlations were found between gender and two clusters of R-LSSP (rehearsal and organization clusters). This indicates that female students employ rehearsal and organization strategies more often than male students.
The first finding is consistent with the the literature demonstrating that there are significant relationships between the use of learning strategies and academic success. Park (1997) found that good performance by students in language learning strongly related to their use of learning strategies. Thiessen and Blasius (2008) and Dermitzaki, Andreou, and Paraskeva (2008) support Park in terms of performance in mathematics and reading comprehension respectively. Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and McKeachie (1993); however, showed that all learning strategy scales, except for "rehearsal," were positively and significantly correlated with student final achievement. In contrast, Yumuşak et al. (2007) determined that "rehearsal" and "organization" contributed significantly to the prediction of achievement scores in science, particularly in biology. Unlike the findings of this study, Cavallo, Rozman, Blickenstaff and Walker (2003) found that rote learning (or memorization) negatively predicted achievement in science courses.
This study also revealed that gender and attitude towards physics did not have any significant effect on academic success. Findings from several studies indicate that male students are far more successful than their female peers in comprehending physics (see Chambers & Andre, 1997; Beaton et al., 1996; Kahle & Meece, 1994; Wee et al., 1993). When explaining the relationship between gender and success in physics, researchers use attitude as a moderator variable. However, in this study, no significant correlation was found between gender and attitude. The studies cited above were conducted in western countries, so may have been culture specific. Alternatively, the research cited is significantly dated and may reflect past trends rather than indicating emerging realities. A study by Ateş (2008), whose sample was Turkish, found that the relationship between gender and student achievement depends on the questions asked. This study suggests there is no difference between female and male student ability to achieve in physics.
Yet, there were differences between levels of conceptual comprehension between females and males. Ateş (2008) claims that there is a connection between female and male student achievement in physics and the way success in physics is measured. One of the findings of this study indicates that female students use rehearsal strategies (repetition, rote memorization) more frequently than male students. In the same way, Kahle and Lakes (1983) state that female students regard learning science as memorization of some phenomena, so they think that memorization techniques should be used to learn science. Wee et al. (1993) analyzed the performance of a group of university students in Singapore during exams. They found that female students used learning strategies that were less successful in exams than male students. They came to the conclusion that female students prefer independent learning strategies far less than their male peers. Some researchers (Reap & Cavallo, 1992) were unable to find any effects of gender on approaches employed by students when learning.
