Chapter 4 Draft

4-Phase EMPNOS

2-21-07

Erin E. Peters

Results

Descriptive statistics were calculated, and pair t-tests, independent t-tests and repeated measures were performed to identify differences in metacognition, self-efficacy, content knowledge and nature of science knowledge between the experimental and control groups.

In regards to the first hypothesis, as expected, positive correlations among all five variables were found. Specifically, high correlations were found between self-efficacy (SELF) and metacognition of the nature of science (MONOS), r(70) = .63, p < .001 and nature of science knowledge (VNOS-B) and content knowledge (TEMK) r(64) = .52, p < .001. Six other correlations were found to be significant: metacognition of the nature of science (MONOS) and metacognitive classroom orientation (MOLES-S), r(77) = .55, p < .001; content knowledge (TEMK) and metacognition of the nature of science (MONOS), r(65) = .41, p = .001; metacognition of the nature of science (MONOS) and nature of science knowledge (VNOS-B), r(70) = .28, p = .02; self-efficacy (SELF) and content knowledge (TEMK), r(64) = .29, p = .02; self-efficacy (SELF) and nature of science knowledge (VNOS-B), r(70) = .27, p = .03; and self-efficacy (SELF) and metacognitive classroom orientation (MOLES-S), r(71) = .46, p < .001. Table 2 presents correlations for study variables.

Comparison of Control and Experimental Groups.

Independent t-tests were performed for the pre-test comparing the experimental and control groups. As hypothesized no differences were found between the control and experimental group on any of the pre-test measures. It was also hypothesized that the experimental group will outperform the control group on all four pre-/post- measures. When independent t-tests were performed, significant differences emerged between the experimental group and the control group in content knowledge t(1, 66.89) = 2.66, p < .01 and nature of science knowledge VNOS-B t(1, 70.04) = 3.02. The experimental group demonstrated a greater gain in content knowledge (M = 1.89) and knowledge about the nature of science (M = 1.45) than the control group (M = 1.54) and (M = 1.14) respectively. It was hypothesized that the experimental group will outperform the control group on the self-efficacy measure and that within each group there will be increases from pre- to mid- to post-test. To summarize self-efficacy data, which was taken before, during and after the intervention, a repeated measures test was performed. Significant differences in self-efficacy were found within the groups, Wilks’s l = .814, F(2, 65) = 7.40, p < .01. No significant differences were found between groups, but steadily increasing gains were made in the control group because within-subject contrasts show linear significance F(1, 39) = 10.98, p < .01. The experimental group demonstrated a loss in self-efficacy from the pre-test (M = 7.20, SD = 1.20) to the mid-test (M = 7.11, SD = 1.53) and then demonstrated a large gain in the post-test (M = 7.68, SD = 1.84) which were significant at the .05 level.

Within Group Differences.

Furthermore, it was hypothesized that differences would occur within both experimental groups and control groups on all four post-test measures. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to compare differences from pre-test means to post-test means. Significant differences were found within the experimental group in metacognition, content knowledge, and nature of science knowledge. In the control group, significant differences were found for content and metacognition. The largest changes from pre- to post-test was found in the experimental group (n = 33) for content (TEMK) t(1, 32) = 16.64, p < .01 and in the experimental group (n = 33) for nature of science knowledge (VNOS-B) t (1, 32) = 6.35, p < .01. Other significant differences from pre-test to post-test found in the experimental group occurred on the metacognitive orientation of the classroom (MOLES-S) t(1, 36) = 2.81, p < .01 and on the metacognition of the nature of science scale (MONOS) t(1, 35) = 2.98, p < .01. Significant differences from the pre-test to the post-test were found in the control group (n = 35) for content t(1, 34) = 11.96, p < .01 and in the control group (n = 45) for metacognitive orientation of the classroom (MOLES-S) t (1, 44) = 3.41, p < .01. Although both groups showed gains from pre-test to post-test in content, a higher gain in content knowledge was demonstrated by the students in the experimental group (M = 1.89, SD = .40) over the control group (M = 1.54, SD = .47). Students in the experimental group (M = 1.45, SD = .37) also demonstrated a higher score on the Views of Nature of Science Version B instrument than the control group (M = 1.14, SD = .56).