The effects of guided inquiry instruction incorporating a cooperative learning approach on university students' achievement of acid and bases concepts and attitude toward guided inquiry instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of guided inquiry instruction incorporating with cooperative learning environment on University students’ achievement of acid and bases concepts and attitude toward guided inquiry instruction. The subject of this study consisted of 55 first year University students from two intact classes of a Chemistry Course instructed by the same teacher. One of the classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group and the other was assigned as the control group. Researcher prepared worksheets which were related to acid- based concepts based on guided inquiry instruction from the book which is written by (Moog and Farrell, 2006). The experimental group was cooperatively studied worksheets in the groups while the control group was individually studied worksheets in the class. Acid and Bases Achievement Test (ABAT) was administered to the experimental and the control groups as pre and post-tests to measure the students’ understanding of acid and bases concepts and Attitude Toward Guided Inquiry Instruction Scale (ATGIIS) was also used as pre and post-test for both of groups. Multi Variance Analysis (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that students in the experimental group had better understanding of acid and bases concepts and more positive attitude toward guided inquiry instruction.   Key words: Guided inquiry, cooperative learning, acid and bases.