| Abstract: | A year three/four class of thirty primary school children was selected and then exposed to a series of twenty discovery lessons
on electricity, discovery learning being: The learning of scientific principles or concepts which occurs as a generalisation
of experiences by the learner in the absence of direct telling by the teacher. (Carin and Sund, 1975)
The performance of these children was evaluated, both before and after the discovery lessons, on the basis of their ability
to solve problems requiring the application of one or more of the thirteen concepts covered.
On comparing the performance of the “discovery” class on pre-test items with the performance of children from years three
and four, as well as five to seven in other Perth suburban schools on subsets of these items, it was found that the “discovery”
group was no better and no worse than other primary classes. A team of ten graders (examiners) was used for rating purposes.
The Rasch Model was the statistical model used and enabled comparison to be made between the “discovery” group and all other
class groups. |
