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Teaching power generation through debate

Herman M. Lagon
Ateneo de Iloilo High School, Pison Avenue, San Rafael, Mandurriao, 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

Abstract
This study aimed to determine the eectiveness of debate as a strategy in teaching power generation. The subjects of the study were fourth year high school students in Ateneo de Iloilo of school year 2009-2010. Sixty students, chosen randomly from 120 seniors, were match-paired based on their grades and were equally divided into two classes. The rst class (Group A) was exposed to debate while the other class (Group B) was exposed to traditional learning, all done in eight succeeding one-hour sessions. The achievement data was collected with the aid of a teacher-made 120-item multiplechoice test duly item-analyzed and validated by physics experts. The ndings of the research showed that the group A students who were exposed to debate signicantly achieved well in terms of learning the concepts, processes and issues of power generation as compared to those students exposed to traditional learning in Group B. Furthermore, as opposed to the traditional approach, the students found the debate strategy to be more engaging, enlightening, competitive, hands-on and relevant. c 2010 SPVM. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Debate, teaching strategy, constructivist learning, power generation, traditional learning

1.

Background and Rationale of the Study

High school physics is popularly considered by many to be a struggling academic walk in Calvary, most especially if computations and calculations get into the classroom picture. The challenge right now is how to shift the students negative perception to physics by oering innovative teaching strategies in the classroom that is more engaging and relevant, yet less mathematically painful and traditional. One very relevant physics topic is power generation and the issues that go with it. The country is suering from shortage of power. Issues such as the installation of fossil fuel-based power plants over renewable sources of energy have been aecting every household like no other. These and more are the right ingredients in order to jump up a good discussion or scientic discourse on energy generation in a physics class. The researcher believed that in teaching power generation, debate may be a better strategy than the traditional one for as the theory of constructivism suggests, people are active learners and must construct knowledge for themselves (Geary, 1995). The debate style is a good venue for students to discover the basic principles of energy generation for themselves (Schunk, 2006). Furthermore, the debate strategy seemed to t into another constructivist assumption that says
Corresponding

teachers should not teach in the traditional sense of delivering instruction to a group of students. Rather they should structure situations such that learners become actively involved with content through manipulation of materials (like research, presentation and argumentation) and social interaction (Bruning et al., 1999). In line with this, the researcher has tested if the debate teaching strategy would indeed be a good alternative to traditional learning in teaching power generation. It also wished that debate can eectively reduce misconceptions, improve the factual and conceptual knowledge, and develop higher order thinking skills and social awareness among physics students.

2.

Methodology

author: h lagon@yahoo.com (H.M. Lagon)

2.1. Research Design The study is a quasi-experimental two-group posttest design. Treatment A used the Debate Strategy and treatment B adopted the Traditional Teaching Strategy. The subjects of the study were fourth year students in physics who had taken the early topics of classical physics in the rst quarter of the school year 2009-2010. Initially, students were randomly selected using the sh-bowl method from the 120 seniors. Thirty (30) students were used for pilot testing. Sixty (60) other students were match-paired based on their

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H.M. Lagon / Proceedings of the 12th SPVM National Physics Conference

grades in the rst periodical 30 participants for the Treatment A (Debate) group and 30 participants for the Treatment B (Traditional) group. 2.2. The Instrument In order to establish the achievement of students in each group, a 120-item multiple choice instrument on Power Generation that is primarily focused on physics concepts, processes, and implications was constructed by the researcher based on the table of specications which covered topics covering heat and thermodynamics; electricity and magnetism; waves; work, energy, and power; modern physics; environmental science; and current issues in energy. This instrument, initially at 150 items, was pilot tested, internal consistency tested, item analyzed thereafter and nally validated by three physics experts. 2.3. The Intervention Two teaching strategies were used: the Debate Strategy and the Traditional Learning Strategy. In Group A, students were classied into eight cooperative learning groups. The teacher then clustered the students based on their rst quarter physics grades and on their leadership skills to ensure balanced grouping. Under the proposition What is the best source of energy for the Philippines in 2020-2050? each group was assigned using sh bowl method, a source of energy. The topics were: coal-red, oil, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, solar, nuclear, and wind (eight-corner debate strategy) power plants. A one-day orientation on the mechanics of the debate and a one-week-long research and preparation time were given to students. Every group is given 15 minutes to present their power plant and another 35 minutes to defend it in a debate format before the class. It is worthy to note that in each power source, physics principles on energy generation and transmission process are the crux of the reporting and debate. 2.4. Data Collection Procedure The multiple choice test was administered to the students the day after the last session of the intervention. Each group was given 80 minutes to nish the 120-item test. Every correct item is worth one point. The accumulated score is interpreted as follows: 97-120 (mean score range), excellent (description); 73-96, Above Average; 49-72, Average; 25-48, Below Average; and 0-24, Poor. For the qualitative data, triangulation was made by collecting information through focus group discussions (FGDs), students reection (academic prompts and journals) and researchers observations.

2.5. Data Analysis Procedure The test scores of the students for both groups were analyzed using SPSS version 17 for the t-test for independent sample. The statistical signicance was set at alpha 0.05. Descriptive analysis was aided by the use of frequencies, standard deviations, and means. 3. Presentation, Analysis, and Interpretation of Results

From the score results, it appears that the experimental group has an above average performance as compared to the controlled group having only an average accomplishment. The scores also show that the debate teaching strategy yields better results than traditional teaching as evidenced Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Scores of Respondents in Treatment A (Debate) and Treatment B (Traditional) Grouped in Terms of Description of Performance

Table 1 shows that there is a 16.7-point mean dierence between Group A (87.1667) and Group B (70.4667) in the 120-point multiple choice test, with the experimental group having the higher average. It is also worthy to note that, in the area of homogeneity, the range of scores for the experimental Group A is 57 which is 27 units lesser than that of the controlled Group B that has a range of 84.
Table 1: Mean Scores of the participants in the Treatment A (Debate) and Treatment B (Traditional).

Group Debate Traditional

Range 57 84

Std. Dev. 15.638 20.357

Mean 87.167 70.467

Description Very Good Good

If the performance of the students in Group A and Group B are compared, results show that there is a signicant dierence (with p value of 0.001<0.05) in their achievement based on their learning in the concepts and issues on power generation. Data is shown in Table 2 below.

H.M. Lagon / Proceedings of the 12th SPVM National Physics Conference Table 2: Result of t-test for independent sample on the signicance of the dierence between the means of the scores of the groups in the 120-point achievement test.

34

Group

Mean

t-value

Debate 87.167 3.563 Traditional 70.467 p value < 0.05, signicant

Mean Di. 16.700

df 58

Sig. (2 tailed) 0.001

Data revealed that students learned more using debate than the traditional teaching strategy. They who were exposed to debate, a non-traditional teaching strategy, have managed to get better scores than those who were taught using traditional learning. This result is consistent with the ndings of Poulou and Driver (2000), Richmond and Striley (2000), Sanosa (2000), Constantino-Aban (2003), Salanga (2003), Fong et al. (2004), Fabrigar (2007), and Delgado (2008). All of them found out in their respective results that non-traditional strategies like debate are more eective and ecient way of instruction. From the FGDs, students reection and researchers observation, it was further found out that the reasons for this positive response to debate may have been due to students increased interest and ownership with the power plants that they were supposed to explain and defend in class. Among the overwhelmingly and unanimously positive responses, this one coming from a male student respondent says it all concisely: This (debate) is a great, fun way of learning. When a child learns how to walk, he should experience tripping. That, too, applies to this debate. The feeling of tripping comes when you cannot answer a question, and learning comes when you gain knowledge when you were able to research, defend and rebut, and when you can say Ah! Yes! I did it! I was able to conquer my fear and I learned a lot today. 4. Conclusion

It appeared that more students in the experimental group have answered items concerning environmental implications, processes, concepts and eects of power generation. Although these were also discussed in the traditional teaching strategy, the level of discussion of the said topic in the debate is more progressive, indepth and relevant. More than the conceptual and factual benets of debate, it was also found out that students had enhanced their interpersonal, leadership, public speaking, research, competitive, argumentative, analytical, listening, note-taking and adversity skills. Lastly, this approach also measures higher order thinking skills, especially those that cannot be measured by traditional evaluation tests. Hence, it serves as a good tool in measuring Understanding by Design (UbD) or performance-task and transfer-goal based instructional objectives. References
1. Brunning, R.H., Schraw, G.J., and Ronning, R.R. (1999), Cognitive Psychology and Instruction (Third Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. 2. Constantino-Aban, Lorna, Instruction on Questioning, Teaching Style, Student Question Level, and Achievement in Physics. Unpublished Masters Thesis. University of the Philippines-Diliman. Diliman, Quezon City. 2006. 3. Delgado, May. Games for Vocabulary Development: An MI Approach. Unpublished Dissertation Paper. West Visayas State University. Luna St., La Paz, Iloilo City. 2008. 4. Driver, Rosalindy (Kings College) and Poulou, Evirella (University of Athens). Small Group Discussion in Physics: Peer Interaction Modes in Pairs and Groups. Journal of Research, Vol 32, Issue 10, Nov, 2000. 5. Fabrigar, Cheryl Ann. Correlates of Students Physics Performed in Public Secondary Schools. Unpublished Masters Thesis. West Visayas State University. Luna St., La Paz, Iloilo City. 2007. 6. Fong, See Toh, Wai, Loo Kwok, and Yong, Loo Wan (2004). Physics Insights. Singapore: Pearson Educational (Asia). 7. Geary, J.C. (1995). Reections of Evolution and Culture in Childrens Cognition: Implications for Mathematical Development and Instruction. American Psychologist, 50 Richmond, Gail and Striley, Joanne (Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University). Making Meaning in Classrooms: Social Processing, Small Group Discourse, and Scientic Knowledge. Journal of Resarch, Vol 33, Issue 12, Dec, 2000. 8. Salanga, Dolores. Comparative Eectiveness of the Cooperative Teaching Strategy and the Traditional Method in Teaching Math II at Manila High School, District V, Manila City. Unpublished Masters Thesis. Pamantasan ng Lungson ng Maynila. Manila City. 2003. 9. Sanosa, Minerva (2000). Comparative Eects of Innovative and Traditional Strategies in Teaching Physics on the Achievement Attitude of BSED Freshmen (Journal 2000, Vol 2, December 2000); Naval Institute of Technology, Naval, Biliran. 10.Schunk, Dale (2006). Learning Theories, An Educational Perspective. Ohio: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

There was a signicant dierence between the experimental group and the controlled group performance under a 120-item multiple choice test. Although all the concepts were also covered in the traditional learning strategy, the debate strategy showed to be more eective and ecient in terms of giving students the better venue to understand the issues and concepts of power generation in an environment that is more engaging, enlightening, challenging, self-instructive, healthily competitive, hands-on, student-centered and relevant. Students unanimously perceived that there was no boring moment during the duration of the debate. On the other hand, some students in the traditional learning method have verbalized lack of excitement and a dreary sense of predictability.