The Effectiveness of a Conceptually Focused Out-of-class Intervention on Promoting Learning of Electricity by Township Learners

Abstract

In this article I report a study into the effectiveness of a 6 week intervention aimed at promoting learning of electricity concepts by 91 Grade 8 and 9 township learners. Each week I taught these learners for an hour and they engaged with educational software for another hour. Analogy usage and predict–explain–observe–explain pedagogy were emphasised in the teaching. The software was designed to drill terminology and guide concept explanation and scientific reasoning while supporting scientific language development. The research is guided by questions about the effectiveness of the intervention, learning goals achieved and learning strategies used by the more successful learners. Effectiveness is measured using the criteria of meeting curricular outcomes and the learning goals of remembering, shown by performance on recall questions, and understanding, shown by performance on near- and far-transfer questions. The findings suggest statistically significant, but low, mean learning gains. One learner gained an extensive, and 20 achieved some, understanding of electric circuits. Nearly half (43) of the learners demonstrated some memory with little understanding and the remaining 27 could not even remember much of the taught information. The successful learners voluntarily engaged with the software or notes they copied verbatim from the software for extended periods after school hours. This research is significant since it introduces an appropriate framework for evaluating achievement of learning goals and helps inform our understanding of what expectations are reasonable and how to best conduct interventions targeted at promoting learning, within the highly problematic context of South Africa’s township schools.

Keywords:

• Electricity
• physical science learning
• South African township schools

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Angela Elisabeth Stott http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2663-0812