Investigating the Effect of Structural Communication Grids as Conceptual Change Strategies on Student’s Academic Achievement in Biology at Secondary Level

Abstract

The conceptual understanding of students is closely related to circumstances such
as teachers, textbooks, instructional strategies, and assessment techniques. The
most critical factor which affect student’s learning is the way we assess them.
Structural communication grids being an alternative assessment technique is to
measure meaningful learning and discovering students’ misconceptions. Quasiexperimental design was used in this study to explore the effect of structural
communication grids as conceptual change strategies on students’ academic
achievement in 9th grade biology. The sample of the study was comprised of 100
9
th grade biology students (male=55 and female=45). The researcher conducted
side by side experiments in two different institutions in G-9 sector, Islamabad.
Biology achievement test as one of the data collections tools, were developed by
the researcher and its reliability was found to be 0.85. In addition, 30 structural
communication grids were used in the present study, which were developed by the
researcher in consultation with experts in the subject of biology. After treatment
results were collected and analyzed by the researcher using descriptive statistics
(Mean and Standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Independent Sample t-test
and Two-Way ANOVA). The results of the study revealed that structural
communication grids are useful for improving student’s achievement by
diagnosing their misconceptions concerning grade 9 biology. Both male and
female students performed similarly using structural communication grids. It was
recommended that similar research studies may be conducted for other grades as
well as for other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, General
Science etc