A STUDY OF THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION ABILITY IN THE TOPIC OF WORK AND ENERGY OF GRADE 8 STUDENTS EMPLOYING 7E LEARNING CYCLE WITH SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

Abstract

     The purposes of the current research were to; 1) compare the scientific explanation ability before and after implementing 7E Learning Cycle along with scientific explanation, 2) examine the growth score of the scientific explanation ability of the students before and after implementing 7E Learning Cycle along with scientific explanation in the topic of Work and Energy. The research samples were 31 grade-8 students studying in the second semester of the academic year 2019, from Boonkhum Radbumrung School. They were selected by using cluster random sampling method. The research instruments consisted of 1) instructional plan integrated with 7E Learning Cycle along with scientific explanation in the topic of Work and Energy as well as 2) the scientific explanation test. According to the single test item, the Sensitivity Index value was assessed. The result was between 0.45 - 0.51 which indicated that the questions’ quality was good. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability of the test item and it was revealed that the reliability was at 0.73 which meant that the tool was reliable. The statistics for data analysis were means, standard deviation and t-test.
     The research findings were showed as follow:
     1. The students who were implemented 7E Learning Cycle along with the scientific explanation had the post-test score of scientific explanation higher than pre-test score at the statistically significant level .05.
     2. The students who were implemented 7E Learning Cycle along with the scientific explanation showed the different growth scores of the scientific explanation as follow; the highest score was at 3.23 percent, the high score was at 22.58, the average score was at 70.96 percent and the basic score was at 3.23 percent.