Teachers' predictions of pupils' attainments in chemistry
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Date
1977
Authors
Suan, Yoong
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Abstract
In curriculum development work, experienced teachers are generally
asked to judge the suitability of subject matter relative to the aptitude
vocabulary or reading levels and interests of the pupils in order to
decide on the grade placement of these subject matter. This study sought
to determine the accuracy of Malaysian chemistry teachers' predictions
or judgements of their pupils' attainments in chemistry, and to identify
correlates associated with the accurate predictions. This study also
attempted to find out whether or not teachers predicted the attainments
of the various ability pupils differently, and also whether or not they predicted the pupils' attainments of the various behavioural levels of
.chemistry instructional objectives differently.
A random sample of 74 chemistry teachers were given a list of 30
chemistry instructional objectives. They were asked to predict whether
or not each of their pupils chosen from a form four science class could
attain each of these objectives. A chemistry achievement test was later
administered to measure the pupils' actual attainments of these objectives.
The difference between the teacher's prediction and the pupils
actual attainment gives a discrepancy index, /d/, as a measure of the
predictive accuracy. /d/ is an index taking a value between 0 and 1,
in absolute value. The smaller the value of /d/, the more accurate is
the prediction.
The results showed that the teachers, in general, were fairly
accurate in their predictions, especially when taken in a global manner.
A 3x3 Analysis of Variance showed that the teachers' predictions of the
attainments of the various ability pupils did differ significantly, and
that the predictions were most accurate with the high ability pupils,
and least accurate with the lower ability pupils. The results also
revealed that the teachers did predict the attainments of the various
behavioural levels of objectives differently, and that the predictions
of the attainments of knowledge objectives were the most accurate. A
significant disordinal interaction effect indicated that the predictions
were most accurate with high ability pupils in the attainments of the
knowledge objectives, and least accurate with low ability pupils in the
attainments of higher levels of objectives.
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A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that a weighted
linear combination of five variables: mean achievement of the class
under prediction, teacher's age, teacher's professional qualification,
the number of chemistry periods taught by the teacher, and size of the
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class (number of pupils) under prediction, was highly predictive of
· 'i:.he discrepancy index.
Tentative recommendations for curriculum practice are suggested,
especially on the need for pre-service or in-service training to improve
the teacher's prediction or judgement of the low ability pupils in
respect of the higher level cognitive behaviours. Since the results have
limited generalizability, it is recommended that replication studies
involving other disciplines, grade levels, and other groups of people
such as curriculum personnel, be conducted. These include in-depth
observation and experimental studies.
Description
Keywords
Pupils' attainments