An idiom-driven learning strategy to improve low achievers’ science comprehension, motivation, and argumentation.

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effects of an idiom-driven learning strategy on low achievers' (LAs') motivation, conceptional learning, and argumentation in science. A web-based idiom-driven learning program was developed according to the LAs' needs. The program included scaffoldings such as digital animation, science inquiry simulation, discussion blocks, and sentence templates. A quasi-experimental design was used with 362 8th graders identified as LAs due to their school science scores of the previous semester being in the first quartile. The students were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received web-based idiom-driven learning strategy for instruction, and the second group received the same web-based instruction without idiom integration, while the control group received traditional instruction. Three types of science topics—descriptive, hypothetical, and theoretical—were systematically organized as learning materials, accompanied by three respective Chinese idioms: a mantis tries to stop a chariot; many a little makes a mickle; and mental telepathy. After nine weeks of instructions, the first experimental group demonstrated significantly higher performance in science. A number of factors related to the idiom-driven learning strategy—personification, humor, and metaphor—explained the experimental groups' better performance. The problem-solving learning context and the online scaffoldings were other factors that facilitated the students’ multiple ideas and questions for argument. These positive results provide an opportunity for educators to change their traditional viewpoint that science argumentation in theoretical topics is always a difficult task for many LAs.