A Study of Teaching and Learning Factors Affecting Student's Achievement in Science

Liew, Sze Pei, (2018) A Study of Teaching and Learning Factors Affecting Student's Achievement in Science. PhD thesis, Open University Malaysia.

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Abstract

Science is a key factor for a country’s development. Students need to acquire 21st century skills and develop competencies to compete globally. Unfortunately, evidence had shown that Malaysian 15-year-old students performed poorly in science in international comparative studies. This study was undertaken to investigate the factors influencing science achievement among Form 2 or 14-year-old students from four states and two Wilayah Persekutuan in Malaysia. The objective was to examine the relationships between student factors, teacher factors and classroom instructions with students’ science achievement. This study employed a cross-sectional survey research design to answer the research questions and address the research objectives. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques were used to develop models to assess various research questions. Stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain the samples from 846 secondary schools. A total of 2,867 valid responses out of 2,869 was achieved, yielding a final response rate of 99.93%. The results concluded that various student-level factors, teacher-level factors and classroom instruction influenced students’ science achievement. The results confirmed that 46% of the variance in students’ science achievement was contributed by differences across teacher-level variables. The results also confirmed that 54% of the variance in students’ science achievement was contributed by differences across student-level variables. The results confirmed that there were three teachers’ classroom instructional factors which contributed to the variance in students’ science achievement, i.e. (i) effective and engaged science instruction together with teacher quality (49.98%); (ii) inquiry-based science instruction (7.59%); (iii) integration of ICT into teaching and learning (5.20%). The results confirmed that there was a significant relationship between students’ IQ and their science achievement. The results also confirmed that higher-order thinking skills alone did not have a significant relationship with students’ science achievement. However, when higher order thinking skills, attitude towards science and students’ IQ were analyzed together, these variables jointly contributed 54% of the variance in students’ science achievement. In addition, the results confirmed that ICT-related variable, i.e. (i) students’ internet broadband access at home, mediated the relationship between frequency of students using their computers at home for science learning and their science achievement. However, another ICT related variable, i.e. (ii) frequency the science teachers used the computer laboratories to teach science, did not mediate the relationship between frequency of students using their computers at home for science learning and their science achievement. The best structural model has achieved adequate goodness of fit (Chi-square=1017.720 (df-102); GFI .929; CFI .965; RMSEA .079). (Abstract by Author)

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