Activating students’ prior knowledge of basic science concepts on animal and human system organ

Mochammad Ahied,Aida Fikriyah,Irsad Rosidi,Laila Khamsatul Muharrami

doi:10.21009/biosferjpb.v13n2.280-291

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze students' prior knowledge of basic science subjects, especially in organ systems concepts in animals and humans. This research was conducted on the lecture of Basic Science toward 46 students in Science Education class. Data were collected using a diagnostic test consisting of 12 essay questions in the first meeting before the learning process was implemented. Furthermore, findings obtained in this study were analyzed using quantitative descriptive method. Findings of the study indicated that students’prior knowledge reached a low level, with 4.8 on the average score. From out of 46 students in this study, six students reached high prior knowledge score. In contrast, 40 students reached below a high level. It can be concluded that students do not have great prior knowledge. It should be stimulated continually in every initial learning process to comprehend the new concepts during learning activities easily.

Highlights

A teaching and learning process is a systematical activity involving everyone to learn something
According to the previous views, this study aims at analyzing students’ prior knowledge of basic science subjects, in the concepts of organ systems in animals and humans
This study aimed to analysing student's prior knowledge of basic science subjects, especially in the concepts of organ systems in animals and humans

Summary

Introduction

A teaching and learning process is a systematical activity involving everyone to learn something It is objective and involves an assessment to ensure students can achieve the concepts and relevant to learning objectives (Psotka, 2012). Instructor has to create connections and links between prior knowledge on students and new concept comprehension (Taber, 2014). As it is already stated, learning concepts are often devoid of such activities to retain their brevity and reusability in a variety of instructional processes. Students are proved to learn when they can make connections from new concepts to the previous knowledge they already have before (Greener, 2012; International Labour Organization, 2013). Educators need to develop background knowledge to allow students to comprehend and link new information (Taylor & Whannell, 2017; Whannell et al, 2018)

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