DESIGN AND ASSESSMENT OF AN INTEGRATED TEACHING METHOD FOR TEACHING ECOSYSTEMS
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present and evaluate the Integrated Teaching Method (ITM) which is an innovative teaching model incorporating comprehensive teaching content, effective teaching strategies, and specifically-designed lesson plans. ITM was developed based on modern learning theories in conjunction with the latest findings in cognitive psychology and the neuroscience of the brain. ITM was implemented on Year 8 Greek secondary school students to teach the ecosystem and was assessed in comparison to Didactic Teaching Strategies (DTS), based on a traditional teaching method. The data collection tools were questionnaires on students’ knowledge, comprehension, application and attitudes/opinions towards the environment. ANOVA and t-Test showed that students who were taught with ITM as opposed to those taught with DTS: a) achieved better results in knowledge, comprehension and application of the teaching content, and b) achieved equally good results in terms of attitudes/opinions towards the environment. The findings suggest that ITM had a greater impact and improved the level of student knowledge to a larger extent than DTS. ITM can thus be considered an effective teaching methodology and is proposed to be implemented in the multi-disciplinary teaching of biology, environmental education and Ecology; its effectiveness in the other science subjects should also be assessed.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.1053
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