The Effects of Learning Cycle on College Students' Understanding of Different Aspects in Resistive DC Circuits

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of learning cycle method on college students' understandings of different aspects involve in dc circuits. Participants were 152 freshmen (Female=69 and Male=83) from four intact classes. The intact classes were randomly assigned into one of two treatment groups. After the groups were formed, all students were administered a test called Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT) to measure students' pre understanding of a variety of dc circuits' concepts and aspects. Then, one group completed a simple dc circuits unit with learning cycle approach (n1=79), while the other completed a simple dc circuits unit with traditional approach (n2=73). Finally, all students were administered the DIRECT again as posttest. ANCOVA results revealed a significant treatment effect. Students who experienced the learning cycle activities had higher achievement on the post DIRECT when compared with students experiencing the non-learning cycle activities. The effects of learning cycle method were found to be statistically significant on teaching most of the concepts and the aspects involve in circuits, but not on teaching conservation of current and explaining the microscopic aspects of current flow in a circuit.