ABSTRACT
This study aimed to test the effectiveness of 5E’s learning model instructional material in General Chemistry 1. Perceived difficult topics in General Chemistry 1 were determined during the first semester. The respondents were the 250 Grade 12 students enrolled in STEM strand of Senior High School and the 71 science teachers of the four (4) selected schools within DEPEd Division of Quezon, S.Y. 2017 – 2018. Questionnaires were developed to determine the perceived difficult topics, the factors that make the topics difficult in General Chemistry 1 and the level of acceptability of the instructional material. The material and the achievement test were developed, evaluated and validated. Science teachers perceived “stoichiometry”, “gases”, and “electronic structure of the atom” as difficult topics. In general, learning environment, nature of the topics, student and teacher-related factors made the topics difficult. The material included the perceived difficult topics. Both groups are equivalent in terms of pretest scores and Grade 11 general average since the t-values of 0.92 and 0.45 respectively are less than the tabular value of 1.96 at α=0.05. Hence, posttest-only controlled group design was used. There is a significant difference between the two (2) groups in terms of posttest scores since the t-value of 10.58 is higher than the tabular value of 1.96 at α=0.05. It means that students who are exposed to 5E’s learning model performed well in the said subject as compared to the controlled group. Students strongly agree when it comes to the acceptability of the material.
Keywords: 5E’s learning model, 21st century STEM, general chemistry 1
INTRODUCTION
Science education, throughout the previous decades, highlighted on strategies to improve the quality of science education and enhance effective school-based science education programs. Today, there are challenges among science educators because their principal duty is to foster inquiry-based instruction (National Research Council, 2012). Lee, Quinn, and Valdes (2013) pointed out that preparation connected to science describes inquiry-based scientific concepts since they are similar with scientific inquiry and help the learners to comprehend and employ science in real-life situation. Hence, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Program for the Senior High School (SHS) was developed.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a strand for senior high school within the academic track, which is in fact created on the notion of educating the learners in four (4) particular subjects in an integrative and realistic approach. Instead of teaching the four (4) disciplines as isolated and distinct subjects, the STEM strand place collectively these disciplines into a coherent paradigm created on real life and genuine applications (Hom, 2014). Global affairs for enhancing STEM education have been strengthened and intensified in the previous decades and reveal no indication of such low performance in learning (Caprile et al., 2015; Prinsley & Baranyai, 2015; Honey et al., 2014; The Royal Society Science Policy Centre, 2014; Marginson et al., 2013). Cruz (2014) also stressed that learners from STEM are expected to become an expert in the field of science to elucidate and rationalize more complex science disciplines. One of the specialized subjects to be taken in the said strand is General Chemistry 1.
The decline in science education emanated from the notion of Gagnon and Mattingly (2012), who studied schools’ plan and other systems related to schools’ resources and its distribution, as well as tracked result of shortage of some instructional materials, including books. In addition, after educators examined DEPEd textbooks, they detected several errors (Ortilla, 2015). These problems may lead to low academic performance among the learners, which led to the low performance of the Philippines in the 2015-2016 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, in which our country ranked 67th out of 140 countries in terms of the quality education for mathematics and sciences. Moreover, based from 2016-2017 data, the country ranked 79th out of 138 in the said disciplines (Dela Cruz, 2017). In order to solve the said problem, it is very necessary to provide a material that integrates the 5E’s instructional model for the curriculum and instruction. This notion is in accordance with Section 10.3 of DEPEd Order No. 43, s. 2013 dealing with executing the rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 10533, known as The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013. This section states that creation and enhancement of instructional learning materials shall be fostered among educators (Department of Education, 2013). These materials must be incorporated with hands-on activities into educative process so that the students will become more skilled and competent in chemistry. Enhancing the quality of education motivates the students to take an active role in the learning process that will be the basis for the implementation of 5E’s learning model. Therefore, learners will continue attaining the ultimate goals of science education by constructing new concepts and meanings (Hickey, 2015; Corpuz, and Salandanan, 2007).
The researcher encountered some negative attitudes during the teaching-learning process among the students regarding General Chemistry 1. There may be resistance, which may come in the form of work avoidance. Some students do not care enough about the experiments and other forms of activities to fully engage in it. Others who hastily solve a problem, do not sufficiently utilize available resources, so as to move on to a more engaging stage of the inquiry process. This experience is similar to the findings of Pond (2014) in which learners reveal the low academic performances in the universities and colleges. In addition, based from the experiences and observations of the researcher, the students’ low achievement in chemistry were because of the weak foundation of chemistry from the high school level, wherein the learners find the topics in chemistry very difficult. Hence, students do not have enthusiasm and motivation since they consider the passive approach within the learning process. Most of the time, chemistry is usually considered as a challenging and difficult discipline, a conclusion that occasionally repels learners from learning chemistry. Chemistry education must be highlighted within secondary education in terms of class instruction, since chemistry has an essential function in integrating other science disciplines. The problem is that students are not successful in the said discipline at alarming rates in basic education for the previous decades (Uchegbu et al., 2015; Agogo, & Onda, 2014). Although many educators shared their findings to why learners have low academic performance in chemistry, problems still exist. Learning difficulties can be attributed to lack of instructional materials in the senior high school despite the existence of curriculum guides.
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