Inquiry-Discovery Teaching Approach as a Means to Remediate Primary Students’ Misconceptions About the Phases of the Moon

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of an inquiry-discovery teaching approach in remediating misconceptions about the phases of the moon was investigated. For this purpose, quantitative data analysis was employed. A test consisting of eight open-ended and 18 multiple-choice questions was administered as pre-test and post-test to 75 Year 6 primary school students from two intact classes in a school. The classes were randomly assigned into an experimental group (N = 38) instructed using an inquiry-discovery teaching approach and a comparison group (N = 37) instructed using a more traditional approach. An independent-samples t test was used to determine the treatment effect on students’ conceptual understanding about the phases of the moon. The analysis of the post-test mean scores of both groups showed a statistically significant difference favouring the experimental group (M exp = 16.62; SDexp = 1.07; M com = 11.18; SDcom = 2.34; t = 11.07, p < 0.05). A post-test analysis also indicated that students in the experimental group held fewer misconceptions about the phases of the moon than the comparison group students.