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How to Facilitate Teachers’ Understanding of Hypotheses and Predictions?

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to facilitate inservice high school and university teachers’ understanding of the difference between the terms hypothesis and prediction. The context for understanding these terms was Columbus’s discovery of America (as in the previous study). Control group teachers (N=94) were evaluated before the discussion of these terms, whereas Experimental group teachers (N=102) were evaluated after these terms had been fully discussed and elaborated in class. Results, based on written responses, showed that the Experimental group performed better than the Control group in elaborating both hypothesis and prediction. The difference was, however, statistically significant only for prediction. Despite improvement, almost 50% of the teachers still had difficulty in formulating a hypothesis and 40% in formulating a prediction.

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Correspondence to Mansoor Niaz.

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Niaz, M. How to Facilitate Teachers’ Understanding of Hypotheses and Predictions?. Interchange 42, 51–58 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-011-9145-4

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