The Impact of Teaching Interventions for Electrical Circuits on the Structure of Primary School Students’ Written Arguments

Abstract

The present paper aims at investigating the impact of a teaching intervention for electrical circuits, based on the constructivist approach to learning, with the engagement of students in science and engineering practices, on the structure of primary school students’ written arguments. Furthermore, the comparison between the learning outcomes (regarding the structure of students’ arguments) of this teaching intervention and the respective learning outcomes of another teaching intervention for electrical circuits, which is based on the school textbook primary school students in Greece are taught, is pursued. Instructional material on electrical circuits was developed based on the constructivist approach to learning, with the engagement of students in science and engineering practices, and was implemented with 34 students aged 11 years (experimental group). In addition, according to the school science textbook, which is based on the Guided Research Teaching Model, electrical circuits were taught to 38 students aged 11 years (control group). Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire completed by the students before and after the two teaching interventions. Data analysis used a scale of two-level classified criteria. It emerged that the teaching intervention implemented in the experimental group significantly contributed to improving the structure of students’ written arguments. By contrast, the structure of written arguments developed by students belonging to the control group was not significantly improved.