Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

5-20-1966

Abstract

I. THE PROBLEM

Statement of the problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of the use of analogy in teaching selected concepts at the sixth-grade level. Fifteen concepts were selected from grade level teaching material, and each was paired with a concept already familiar to the students. The method of teaching the new concept by analogy with the known concept was so structured that specific principles of thinking and learning processes formed the basic framework. The following principles were included: (a) relation of an unfamiliar experience to one already within the cognitive structure, (b) analysis and synthesis of the content through discrimination of similar and dissimilar attributes of the known and unknown concept, and (c) emphasis on perception through concrete experience.

Hypotheses. Six hypotheses were investigated on

the basis of scores from tests administered to an experimental group taught the fifteen concepts by analogy and a control group taught the fifteen concepts by methods other than analogy.

1.Within the experimental group there is a

Negative correlation between I.Q. score and the sum of gain points on the selected concepts.

2. There is no significant difference in I.Q. scores between the experimental and control groups.

3. There is no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the acquisition and retention of factual information.

4. There is no significant difference between the experimental and control group in relating the attributes of a concept to their functional counterparts.

5. Within the experimental group there is a significant positive correlation between scores attained by the formulation of analogies and the sum of scores attained by the identification of concept attributes and their functional counterparts.

6.There is no significant difference between the experimental and the control groups in the formulation of analogies between selected vocabulary items.

Importance of the study· The primary purpose of the educational system is the promotion of learning. This function can be successfully discharged to the extent that the nature of learning is understood and teaching methods emanate from that understanding.

The multitudes who must be educated, the wide range of intelligence capacity levels within those ranks, the needs of the society which must be served, and the size of the body of material now available for assimilation n the educative process, make imperative the need to find efficient methods of teaching.

Research and experimentation are the best hope for solutions to the problems involved. However, past laboratory experimentation has provided fewer helps than might have been expected (Carro 1, 1964). The traditional lag between theory and practice had been perpetuated by experimentation conducted in isolation and under such regimented controls that few parallels in actual classroom situations were possible. This state need not exist where answers are sought J(n the same environment in which they will later be applied.

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Miles Vernon Zintz

Second Committee Member

Le Roy Condie

Third Committee Member

Frank Angel

Fourth Committee Member

Tom Wiley

Download

Share

COinS