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Enhancing Science Learning Through the Introduction of Effective Group Work in Hong Kong Secondary Classrooms

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Abstract

This study compares the learning results of three groups of secondary two (grade eight) students of a similar academic standard who participated in a teaching intervention involving different pedagogies. One hundred and forty-nine Hong Kong secondary students were chosen and divided into three groups, “whole-class teaching approach”, “group work with no specific strategies” and “group work with effective strategies”, to study the “space travel” unit in their science curriculum. The first group was exposed to traditional whole-class instruction, and the latter two practised collaborative group work, with the third adopting four effective strategies derived from a UK-based quasi-experimental project. Analyses of the pre- and post-diagnostic assessments and audiotaped discussions revealed that group work comprising effective strategies not only raised students’ test scores, but also enhanced their joint construction of conceptual knowledge in science. The findings suggest that the effective strategies adopted in this study are contributory factors to superior student accomplishments and a stronger desire to seek clarification accruing from shared cognitive activities.

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Notes

  1. The small class teaching policy, which reduced class sizes from 38 to 25 pupils, was implemented in primary 1 in the 2009–2010 school year and then gradually extended to all primary levels by the 2014–2015 school year.

  2. The new senior secondary (NSS) academic curriculum places emphasis on facilitating a “learner-centred approach” (p. 13) to cultivate students’ self-directed learning ability (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005).

  3. The diagnostic questions were extracted from EPSE Project 1 (sample diagnostic questions—set 6), which evaluates students’ understanding of forces and motion.

  4. Due to space limitations, this paper reports only the content analysis of excerpts from the student dialogue recordings, omitting the coding results of the dialogues.

  5. The teaching intervention shares the same structure as that in the preceding study (Fung & Lui, 2016). The details and procedures of the four-phase intervention can thus be found in that study (pp. 5–6).

  6. The effect size calculations in the current study were performed based on partial-η2 values (Cohen, 1988). Cohen provided estimates of what constitutes a small (0.01), medium (0.06) and large (0.14) effect for partial-η2.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr Tim Wei-Jun LIANG for his participation in this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Hong Kong, Room 323, Runme Shaw Building, Pokfulam Road, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

    Dennis Fung & Wai-mei Lui

  2. University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ, UK

    Venus Hung

Authors
  1. Dennis Fung
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  2. Venus Hung
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  3. Wai-mei Lui
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Correspondence to Dennis Fung.

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Funding

This work was supported by Early Career Scheme; Research Grant Council (Hong Kong), grant no 27400914.

Appendices

Appendix I

Fig. 2
figure 2

Sample diagnostic questions (extracted from EPSE Project 1: set 6, forces and motion)

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Appendix II

Fig. 3
figure 3

Sample science questions adapted from TIMSS

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Appendix III

Fig. 4
figure 4

Classroom seating of the study. The WCTA condition. The GWES condition. The GWNS condition. The figures are also presented in Fung (2014)

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Fung, D., Hung, V. & Lui, Wm. Enhancing Science Learning Through the Introduction of Effective Group Work in Hong Kong Secondary Classrooms. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 16, 1291–1314 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-017-9839-x

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