Steady Technique

‘STEADY TECHNIQUE ’ : INCREASING 4 MPV BOYS’ INTEREST TOWARDS SCIENCE SUBJECT 1.0

REFLECTION ON PREVIOUS TEACHING AND LEARNING “The lack of male students in the Public Institution of Higher Education is a

serious phenomenon”. This issue was highlighted in a Malaysian newspaper, ‘Utusan Malaysia’ on 17 June 2008. I reflected upon this issue and asked myself, why was this happening? What were the reasons for the phenomenon? Did it have a connection to the education the students received at the secondary level? I am a science teacher in a secondary school who is teaching 16 to 17 years old students. In this school there are seven classes of form four. Form 4 MPV was the second weakest class among the seven classes. All of the students were weak in their academic achievement. The mid term examination result in 2008 showed that none of the students had passed their science subject. This situation was also the same for the other subjects. There were no major differences in the achievement between boys and girls. Attitude was the main factor that contributed towards the low achievement among the students. During the learning session, the girls were more alert compared to the boys. Most of the boys showed no interest in learning. They looked sleepy and bored most of the time. Some of them slept during the classes. Based on the interview that was conducted, it was found that eight out of ten boys worked part time at food stalls, chicken processing centers, mini markets and as cleaners. The worked for part time to pay for their motorcycle installments, take their driving license and for their daily expenses i.e buying cigarettes. Only two of them were non smokers. Majority of the smokers smoked more than ten cigarettes per day. One of them admitted that he stole RM1.00 per day from his mother to buy cigarettes. There was also one boy who did part time job to help his family. All of the boys who worked said that they could support themselves and they need not even ask money from their parents. In fact, one of the boys admitted that he was no

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longer interested in pursuing his studies. He said he was forced to come to school by his parents. The situation was different for the girls. They did not do any part time job. The data collected indicated the reasons why the boys looked sleepy in the classroom during lessons. They lacked interest and did not pay attention to their lessons. The main reason was because they were tired. Beside that nine out of ten students were not interested in the science subject. As for the girls, eight out of ten students paid attention in class during this subject. Truancy was another serious problem in this class. Not less than three students were absent every day. Both boys and girls were often absent from school, sometimes two boys and a girl and vice versa. Some of the students played truant because they woke up late. When I asked why they were absent from school, they said that it was better not to be come to school than to be late and be punished by the discipline teacher. Even though the boys had part time jobs, I found that the science results for both gender were almost the same. As for Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) only one girl passed in the mid year examination. As regards to Mathematics, there were only two boys who passed and the same goes for the other subjects. Overall, it could be said that the students’ were not performing well academically. I also interviewed two teachers who used to teach this class. One of them used to teach most of these students when they were in Form 3. The teachers commented that these students were well known for their poor attitude. They were lazy, had no interest in learning and were, always absent from school or class. Most of the teachers did not know how to deal with them. Throughout my observation, the boys were more active compared to the girls. Even so, their results did not show any difference in their performance. I believed that if more boys showed interest in the science subject, their results would improve. I knew that

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I would be able to attract the interest of the boys during the learning session by using different kinds of teaching technique.

2.0

FOCUS OF STUDY There were a lot of problems that needed to be settled. The main problem was the

students’ lack of interest in studying, especially among the boys. The lack of interest in studying was due to a lot of factors. Among the factors were part time jobs, fatigue, drowsiness and truancy. Four students were suppose to attend a motivation course in Jasin District. They needed to gather at the car park by 9.00 am. At that time I was having my class from 7.40 a.m. to 9.00 a.m. I noticed that the four students were not in the class. When I asked the class they told me that they were involved in the motivation course. After the class, on the way to the staff room, while passing by the students’ toilet, I heard the four students chatting in the toilet. I called them out of the toilet and noticed that their faces turned pale. This incident made me realize that they preferred to hide in the toilet rather than attend my class. I felt that there must be something that caused their lack of interest in my lesson. When I asked the students why they played truant, they just kept silent. I felt that I should change my way of teaching so that I could arouse the students’ interest in learning. I believed that if my lesson could attract the students’ attention, no discipline problem would occur. If I did not change the way I taught in the classroom then I would encounter more discipline problems. The total number of students who played truant from school and class would increase from time to time. Beside that, the students wouldl fall asleep when the lesson was in progress and the condition of the class would become worse. If these happened, negative impact would prolong. How could the students sit for their examinations if they were not interested in their studies?

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I tried my very best to think of a way to create an attractive lesson which could increase the students’ attention, especially among the boys.

3.0

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY After this study, the students will achieve the following objectives: 3.1

General Objective

To increase the Form 4 MPV boys’ interest in the Science subject. 3.2

Specific Objective

1) To create a more energetic and interesting teaching and learning environment in the classroom. 2) To create healthy competition between the boys and girls during lessons. 3) To give more focus to the learning process. 4) To increase the students’ achievement in the Science subject.

4.0

TARGET GROUP This research involved 20 students from Form 4 MPV. There were ten male and

female students.

5.0

IMPLIMENTATION OF THE STUDY 5.1

Initial Observation

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The daily occurrence in school, truancy, students’ lack of interest to learn and the unsatisfactory mid-year examination results prompted me to investigate the underlying problems that existed amongst the Form 4 MPV students in my school.

I checked the class attendance book and randomly interviewed the

students to get further information for my research. The information I gathered helped me to obtain evidence of the problem that was occurring in my classroom. 5.2

Analysis Of Initial Observation Playing truant was one of the serious problems in this class. Table 1

shows the students’ attendance from January to June 2008. Table 1

Number

: Students attendance from January to June 2008

of

absent 1-4 5 - 10 More than 10

days

Number of Student Boy

Girl

4 3 3

3 3 4

The information from the class attendance book, revealed that three boys and four girls were absent from school for more than ten days and there was one girl who had been absent for 35 days. Not less than three students were absent from school every day. During the interview, it was found that most of their reasons were as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

They were lazy to wake up early. They hated certain teachers. They did not finish their homework. They had no interest to learn. The school regulations were too strict. They hated certain students who bullied them.

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During the teaching and learning session, I noticed that boys disliked long explanation as they would start to feel drowsy. I also noticed that if I explained more about the fact of science, eight out of ten of the boys looked drowsy or sleepy. If I reprimanded them, they would ask permission to go to the toilet and then disappear for almost 15 minutes before re-entering the class nonchalantly. As for the girls, there were only two students who looked sleepy or drowsy.

5.3

Action That Carried Out

Based on the observation made, I felt that it was very important to create a technique which could increase the students’ interest to learn. As a result, I had created the STEADY Technique. STEADY is an acronym where each letter represents a particular word as given below:

S

T

E

A

D

 See

 Team

 Experiment

 Activity

 Discussion

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 Yield In the STEADY Technique, I used pictures to explain the science concept. The students would look at the pictures while listening to the explanation from the teacher. This technique emphasized group activity and every activity was a contest between groups. This could create healthy competition among the students. Students were excited to join and tried to win the competition. I prepared seven sets of activities which used visual materials such as pictures, graphic organizer, table, diagram and other things which related to the topic discussed. Students were divided into six groups of three according to the same gender. Worksheet that related to the topic discussed were given to each group. The discussion sessions were to be carried out within a given time frame and the groups who completed their discussion before the allocated time were given extra points. The first group were given five points and the second group three points. After each group discussion, the answers were checked by the other groups when I gave explanation for each answer. The overall marks for each group were accumulated and at the end of the research, which was in October, the group which had collected the most points was declared the winner and given prizes. The findings of this study enabled me to make comparison between the performance of the boys and girls. This study concentrated on the topic “Energy and Chemical Changes” Form Four Science syllabus. This topic was one of the more difficult topics and it was not easily understood by the students. Through past experience, I found that most of the students had difficulty understanding topics related to Chemistry and Physics.

5.4

Implementation of The Activities

This study was carried at from July to August 2008.. Seven sets of activities were carried out. The activities are explained as follow:-

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Activity 1 1. The teacher displayed animated pictures of physical changes and chemical changes with explanation. 2. The students were placed in their own groups. 3. The worksheets which consisted of the pictures of physical changes and chemical changes were distributed. (See Appendix 1) 4. The students were asked to differentiate the type physical and chemical changes. The students were supposed to insert the changes into a graphic organizer form to show the difference. 5. The time allocated was 30 minutes.

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Animated picture of physical change: The melting of ice.

Picture of chemical change shows the reaction between magnesium and oxygen

Activity 2 1. The pictures of exothermic and endothermic reaction were displayed to the students. The diagrams were used to explain the concept of exothermic and endothermic reaction. 2. The students were asked to discuss in groups to identify the differences between exothermic and endothermic reaction. The students were told to use the graphic organizer form. (See Appendix 2) 3. The students had to cut the suitable answer and paste it in the table given. 4. The time allocated was 30 minutes.

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Activity 3 1. The pictures of the arrangement of apparatus for the reaction of metals with oxygen were displayed. 2. The teacher explained about the experiment the students had to conduct. 3. Three groups were asked to carry out the experiment to see the reaction of magnesium and iron with oxygen and the other groups were asked to carry out the experiment to see the reaction of aluminium and lead with oxygen. 4. The students were asked to conduct the experiment in their own groups. 5. The students discuss in groups to complete the worksheet given. (See Appendix 3) 6. The time allocated was 50 minutes. 7. The group’s mark was deducted if the apparatus were not handled carefully. 8. The students were asked to prepare their own report and pass it to the teacher. Activity 4 1. The teacher showed pictures of the reaction of metals with water and also the reaction of metals with acid to the students. 2. The students were asked to study the pictures carefully. Then they were asked to identify the different levels of reactivity of metals by observing the amount of hydrogen gas bubbles released. 3. Working in groups, the students were asked to identify the position of metal (shown in the picture) in the reactivity series in its reaction with acid and water. 4. The students were asked to complete the reactivity equations given in the worksheet. (See Appendix 4)

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5. The students were asked to discuss in groups and create mnemonic to enable them to remember the sequence of metals in the reactivity series of metals. 6. A student from each group was asked to present the mnemonic they had created. 7. The time allocated for discussion was 40 minutes. Activity 5 1. A picture of the reaction of carbon with metal oxides was shown. 2. The worksheets were distributed to the group of students for discussion. The students were asked to complete the equations given. 3. The students were asked to discuss in groups and state the position of carbon in the reactivity series of metals. 4. The students were also asked to complete the equation of reaction between metals and other metal oxides by referring to the reactivity series of metals. (See Appendix 5) 5. The time allocated for this session was 30 minutes. Activity 6 1. The worksheets that consisted of pictures of the process of electrolysis were distributed by the teacher. The prepared pictures were provided with blank spaces. The students were required to discuss in groups and complete the worksheets given. 2. The worksheets covered the topic of electrolysis and its application. (See Appendix 6) 3. The time allocated for this session was 30 minutes. 4. The teacher showed the pictures to the students to explain further about the process and application of electrolysis. At the same time, students were asked to check the worksheets of the other groups.

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Activity 7 1. The production of electrical energy from chemical reaction were explained by the teacher using pictures. 2. Students were asked to discuss in groups to complete the worksheets provided. (See Appendix 7) 3. The time allocated was 30 minutes.

5.5

Observation And Evaluation

5.5.1

Analysis of Students’ Performance

The test was carried out after the mid-year holidays, that was after carrying out the STEADY Technique for one week. The test was divided into two parts, objective and structural. The test results are shown in Table 2.

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Table 2 : The Test Results of 4 MPV Students. No.

Student

Gender

Topical Test 1

Topical Test 2

STEADY

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 Student 13 Student 14 Student 15 Student 16 Student 17 Student 18 Student 19 Student 20

M M M M M M M M M M F F F F F F F F F F

40 31 27 40 27 9 20 31 31 Abs 13 27 40 36 31 29 27 27 24 33

28 23 17 30 23 17 23 36 21 13 26 23 17 38 17 23 19 19 11 23

Teachnique test 67 69 38 69 69 31 47 87 53 Abs 27 44 60 44 42 24 44 51 49 56

The results of Topical Test 1 and Topical Test 2 were compared to those of STEADY Technique Test. This is because Topical Test 1 was on students’ understanding of the topic Body Coordination (Chapter 2) and Topical Test 2 was on the topic Matter and Substance (Chapter 3).

Whereas STEADY Technique Test, was on students’

understanding due topic Energy and Chemical Changes (Chapter 4). Based on past experiences, it was found that students were very weak in understanding Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 as compared to Chapter 2. By making this comparison, it could be seen whether the STEADY Technique could improve students understanding. From the result, it was found that more than 90 percent of the students could not answer the objective questions well. There were some students who kept asking for meaning of words they could not understand. Among complaints heard; “Nie yang aku

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lemah nie’, tak fahamlah cikgu dia kata apa nie cikgu” (This is what I’m weak in, I don’t understand teacher, what is it saying, teacher). It was pitiful to see the students’ ‘suffering’ especially when looking at how hard they tried to understand the questions in order to answer. It was obvious that language was one of the main problems that influenced students’ interest in learning Science. It seemed that 90 percent of the students could answer the structural questions much better than objective questions. Structural questions contained more diagrams compared to objective questions. That is one of the reasons why the students could answer structural questions better than objective questions. Many students showed an improvement after using the STEADY Technique as compared to Topical Test 1 and Topical Test 2. However, there were still 4 failures which included 2 boys and 2 girls. One of the boys was absent during the test. In fact he frequently played truant throughout the year. When I asked this boy, he said that he worked at a cyber-café owned by his uncle. What was unexpected was one the boys scored a high marks, that is 87 percent for the test. Overall, the boys scored higher marks compared to the girls.

5.5.2

Analysis of the Questionnaire

The items in the questionnaire were based on Likert scale. The average for each item is counted and stated in Table 2.

Table 2 : The Effectiveness of STEADY Technique

No

Total Average Score (20

Item

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. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

students) I like the activities carried out using the STEADY Technique. It is fun learning using STEADY Technique. I feel that it is such a lose if I miss school while STEADY Technique is carried out. The STEADY Technique makes me feel more motivated to go to school. The STEADY Technique makes me feel more motivated to learn Science. The STEADY Technique does not make me sleepy in class. It is fun to learn in groups using the STEADY Technique. It is easier for me to understand the lesson using the STEADY Technique. I prefer information which is given in the form of pictures like in the STEADY Technique. I understand better when looking at pictures Learning is more fun with pictures. I always feel motivated to win during group activities. I always try to do my best to win during group activities. I always feel motivated to outdo other groups. I feel I want to do better when my group loses to other groups when the activities are carried out. I feel more comfortable studying in groups.

92 93

4.60 4.65

88

4.40

90

4.50

93

4.65

92

4.6

94

4.7

89

4.45

94 95 94 88

4.70 4.75 4.70 4.40

94 94

4.70 4.70

93 95

4.65 4.75

Overall, the STEADY Technique had a positive effect on the students. All of the students loved the activities carried out using the STEADY Technique. They were more motivated to go to school and they felt that it would be such a great loss if they missed school. The STEADY Technique also made them feel more motivated in learning Science. Moreover, it could prevent the students from feeling sleepy in the classroom. The students strongly agree with the use of pictures during the teaching and learning session because it was easier for them to understand and it was also fun looking at the pictures. All the students felt comfortable learning in groups and they tried their best in making sure their groups won. This made them feel more motivated in outdoing the other groups and they felt challenged when they failed.

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It was found that nearly eight out of ten boys opted for scale ‘5’ which was ‘strongly agree’ for each statement given. Two of them choose scale ‘4’ which was ‘agree’. There were two female students who opted for scale ‘3’ (least agree) for a two statements such as ‘While STEADY Technique is carried out, I feel if is such a lost not to go to school’ and ‘It is easier for me to understand the lesson when the teacher uses STEADY Technique’. This showed that all of the boys were very interested in the use of STEADY Technique. The analysis of the open-ended questions concerning students’ opinions of the STEADY Technique showed that all the students preferred the use of the STEADY Technique.. They stated that they felt exited to learn Science using this technique. All the students’ said that with the STEADY Technique they did not feel sleepy when learning Science in the classroom. There were also a few students who agreed that the STEADY Technique instilled the spirit of teamwork and competitiveness among the students. There were students who commented that the STEADY Technique was so far the best technique for learning science. Some of the comments given by students after the use of the STEADY Technique were ; - ‘I like the way you teach’; ‘You are an understanding teacher and a motivator’; ‘You are sporting’; ‘Sometimes you make jokes and you give us the chance to watch video to prevent us from being bored; ‘There are times to learn and have fun’; ‘You are the best’; ‘You are kind’; ‘This teacher is the best; ‘I love the way you teach because you are steady’; ‘I will not skip your class, but I will skip other teachers’ classes; ‘Love you’, you are always cheerful when teaching us’.

5.5.3

Observation Analysis

There was a noticeable change in the teaching and learning atmosphere in the classroom. Before the study was carried out, 6 - 8 of the boys seemed to be sleepy and

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there were even those who literally dozed off during lesson. But, when the STEADY Technique was being carried out, none of the students showed the signs of drowsiness.

The students were paying full attention to lesson taught

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A boy was looking eagerly at the visual displayed on the screen. At the beginning, when this technique was first introduced to the students, there were three to four of them who did not want to involve themselves in group activities. However, after a few activities were carried out, these students started to show interest and participated actively in their groups. They always looked motivated when discussing and completing the task given. They also always tried to be the first in finishing the group task. Each group seemed to be competing against each other to be the first in completing the task.

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Some of the group activities in the science laboratory.

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Before the study was carried out, there were some students who loved to play truant and skipped classes. However, when the study was carried out, the number of truancy cases decreased and there was no case of skipping classes. I still remember when activity 6 was carried out during the first and second period of the school session, it was raining heavily with thunder and lightning. The students lined up and went to the science laboratory. In such a weather, I was expecting a few students to be absent since it was their usual practice whenever it rained heavily. Even if they came late, they would just stay in class and would not bother to go to the science laboratory. However, this time all of them who were present on that day came to the laboratory to study Science. Surprisingly, one of the boys who was considered to be a ‘hard core’ showed up. This particular student, told me that he was not interested in coming to school and he only came because his mother forced him to do so, made his appearance in the laboratory although he was fifteen minutes late. This unexpected appearance caught me by surprise but it was a pleasant surprise because it indicated a positive response from the students ever since the STEADY Technique had been carried out in the classroom. I noticed that all of the boys showed great interest in this technique. During group discussion, I found that the boys were more motivated compared to the girls. Majority of the boys frequently asked me about things that they did not understand. They even showed active participation which was better than the girls. During the experiment, it was found that the boys carried out the experiment more quickly and effectively compared to the girls. All the three groups of boys managed to complete their experiments faster than the girls. The boys were more confident in carrying out the experiment compared to the girls. A few of the girls were not confident in carrying out the experiment. When reactions occurred during the experiment, the girls would run away due to the fear of seeing the reactiveness of the reactions. It was observed that a few of the boys assisted these girls in turning off the Bunsen Burner while the experiment was on.

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A group of boys were doing their experiment excitedly.

One of the girl was doing the experiment meanwhile her friend was watching from a distance.

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The other girl from the same group was standing even further from her group. The results of the group activities are shown in table 3. Table 3 : The Results of the Competition Between Groups Activity 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Total Mark

Group GREAT LINE (Male) FFH NEUTRON (Male) EDUCATION BOYS

11 24 11

13 13 8

30 28 26

25 22 21

30 17 28

32 20 15

42 41 46

183 165 155

(Male) BRAVO (Female) SPONGEBOB (Female) COLABV8 (Female)

9 9 13

6 6 10

19 23 17

19 18 20

23 19 8

16 21 14

43 34 47

135 130 129

There were great differences between the results of the boys and girls. Among the seven activities, the girls (COLABV8), won only once and the rest were won by boys. The first, second and third places were won by boys. I sponsored prizes in the form of hampers to the first three winners during the formal assembly. Prizes were given away by head of the departments. I noticed that the winners were very proud to receive the prizes 22

because all this while, they had not received any appreciations in public. I hoped that this would be a starting point for the students to keep up with their studies.

6.0

REFLECTION During the STEADY Technique, the number of absentees had reduced. None of

students skipped class.

Students always looked forward to future activities in the

classroom. They came to the laboratory on time as scheduled. A student who would have missed the class because he had to take a riding test attended the class. He said “The test can be taken on some other days”. Another student said that he did not want to miss Science classes as it was really a waste and he did not want to be left out of the activities. However, one of the students was unable to attend the class because he had to help his uncle at the cyber-café when his assistant did not turn up for work in the morning. I still remember that once when I wanted to carry out Activity 6, I planned to explain by using pictures before doing group work. Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm and the LCD could not be used in laboratory. I distributed worksheet to each group and told the students to discuss in groups by referring to their text book. Surprisingly, they performed their task well and completed the worksheet. I felt good when my students completed their tasks without prior explanation. Before this research was carried out, the students never tried to do exercises or the task assigned to them. They will just chit chat or even doze off during lesson. The results showed an obvious increment in performance among the boys. The boys had better result compared to the girls. However, there were four students who failed the test. But I am sure that if I continues this technique, the results will increase especially, among boys. This research gave me a chance to identify my own strengths and weaknesses. All this while, I was not sensitive to the learning differences between the boys and girls.

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Michael Gurian explained that boys and girls had different styles of learning in his book entitled “Boys and Girls learn differently”. The STEADY Technique had significant influence in motivating the boys to learn Science in the classroom. This technique showed clearly that boys were more interested in hands-on activities which were more challenging. They also liked to do group activities because it involved team work.

7.0

SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH This technique made me realize me that boys and girls learn differently in the

classroom. This difference should be taken into consideration when planning future lessons for the students. In future, I will use various kinds of teaching techniques to increase the boys and girls’ interest towards the learning of science. This will help them to perform well in their examinations in the future.

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