The effects of a mastery learning strategy on the chemistry achievement of secondary school students as related to their gender and aptitude in Sabha, the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya [Ressource électronique] / Mohamed Ibrahim Salim

Doctor of education : University of Georgia : 1988

Bibliogr. p. 107-113

This study was designed to determine the effects of a mastery learning strategy on the achievement of secondary school chemistry students in Sabha, The Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The influence of gender and aptitude (independent variables), on achievement (dependent variable) was also studied. Two hundred and ninety-eight, male and female first-year secondary school students (tenth grade) enrolled for the 1987-1988 academic year participated in this study. The study was conducted in two secondary schools: El-Fatah Secondary School for boys; and Al-Kansa Secondary School for girls. The treatment groups consisted of eight classes with four teachers. Four classes were assigned to mastery learning (experimental group), and the other four classes were assigned to the non-mastery learning (control group). The treatment lasted thirty-days and was centered on two chemistry units: Matter and its Change, and Laws of Chemical Reactions. Achievement was measured with two summative tests, one at the end of each unit. Students' aptitudes were assessed with The School Qualification Test ("SQT"), which is required of all students holding a preparatory certificate, to enter the secondary schools. Analysis of variance (GLM) procedures were used to analyze the collected data. Where multiple comparison procedures were required, Tukey's analysis procedure was used. Significant levels for all hypothesis testing were set a priori at .05. The following conclusions were made from in this study: 1. There were significant differences in achievement due to instructional strategy. The mastery learning students had significant achievement gains in chemistry across all achievement tests. 2. Under these study conditions, female students of first-year secondary chemistry have significantly higher overall achievement mean scores than male students. However, these findings are questionable. 3. There was a significant difference in achievement between students of different aptitude across all levels of treatment. Students of high aptitude have higher achievement scores than students of average or lower aptitude. 4. Although, females and males did significantly better under mastery learning, the instructional strategy appeared to reduce gender differences. 5. Although, all aptitude students benefited from mastery learning, high and average aptitude students benefited more than low aptitude students