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Pupils' Abilities and AcademicAchievement in an IndividualisedBiology CurriculumJehuda Huppert a & Reuven Lazarowitz ba Haifa University, School of Education of the KibbutzMovement , Oranim, Tivon 36910, Israelb Department of Education in Technology and Science ,Technion, Haifa 32000, IsraelPublished online: 03 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: Jehuda Huppert & Reuven Lazarowitz (1990) Pupils' Abilities andAcademic Achievement in an Individualised Biology Curriculum, Research in Science &Technological Education, 8:2, 117-131, DOI: 10.1080/0263514900080204

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Research in Science & Technological Education, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1990 117

Pupils' Abilities and AcademicAchievement in anIndividualised BiologyCurriculum

J E H U D A HUPPERT, School of Education of the Kibbutz Movement,Haifa University, Oranim, Tivon 36910, Israel

REUVEN LAZAROWITZ, Department of Education in Technology andScience, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel

ABSTRACT An individualised audio-tutorial (IAT) learning unit in biology 'The Cell' wasimplemented in ninth grade junior high school. The cell subject was divided in three subunits: thecell membrane, the cell nucleus and the cell organelles. The sample included 180 pupils (115pupils in the experimental group which learned in an IAT mode of instruction, and 65 pupils inthe control group who learned in a frontal classroom-laboratory method). Pupils' achievement wasmeasured in relation to gender, academic background in mathematics and biology and /Q levels.Data were treated by analyses of variance and covariance, while pupils' scores in previousknowledge served as covariate. The results indicate that while the control group had significantlyhigher scores on their previous knowledge in biology and the cell subject, both groups achievedequally as well in three consecutive achievement tests given at the end of each of the three learningunits. While in previous knowledge in biology tests girls scored significantly lower than boys, nosignificant differences between boys' and girls' mean scores were found in all three achievement testsin the experimental group. Other results show that students with high scores in mathematics, biologyand IQ tests scored higher in all three achievement tests when instructed in an IAT method. Resultsare discussed in the context of the heterogeneous student population of science classrooms in schoolstoday.

The individualised audio-tutorial (IAT) method of instruction developed byPostlethwaite et al. (1972) primarily for college use, consists of a set of structuredlearning activities based on discrete units of study. In this method of instruction,pupils pursue the learning process individually at their own pace. The activitiesmay require the pupil to read parts of texts, teacher-written learning material,work-booklets and journal articles. Through the work-booklets, which take theplace of teacher-pupil verbal interactions, pupils have to manipulate and examinemodels, view slides and films, listen to and follow directions from tape recorders

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118 J. Huppert & R. Lazarowitz

and perform laboratory experiments. Thus, pupils are independently tools suchas work-booklets, tape recorders, slide and film projectors and laboratory facili-ties. Thus, instead of being a source of information, lecturer or discussion leaderthe teacher is available to guide pupils in general and to help and encouragelearners who have difficulties. In an IAT classroom, the learning process is pupil-centred and pupils are expected to be responsible for their own learning.

Postlethwaite et al. (1972) assumed that one may expect that these changes inthe instructional method mentioned will affect positively pupils' mastery of thesubject matter.

In the present study an IAT learning unit in biology, 'The Cell,' was imple-mented in 9th grade junior high classrooms, and pupils' achievement was mea-sured in relation to gender, academic background in mathematics and biology,and IQ levels. The advantages that IAT method has for pupils, teachers, andclassroom in high school biology instruction were described by Smiley et al. (1972)and Novak (1970) who mentioned that the IAT method allows pupils to progressat their own pace and makes it suitable for teaching heterogeneous groups.

However, the results regarding high school pupils' academic achievementreported in the literature do not show a consistent trend. Better academicachievement for pupils instructed with the IAT method than for pupils taught byfrontal classroom-laboratory method (FCLM) was reported by Shavelson &Manger (1970), Fulton (1971), Smiley et al. (1972), Nordland & Kahle (1973) andVolker (1971) in biology and De Rose (1970) in chemistry. On the other hand,other studies show no difference in academic achievement between the twomethods of instruction in biology (Lee, 1975; Nordland et al., 1975), even thoughNordland et al. (1975) reported in their study that while no significant differenceswere found between the two methods on pupils' achievement, the audio-tutorialgroup achieved higher mean scores.

Tamir & Amir (1975) implemented IAT at the elementary school level (first andsecond grades) and reported that pupils instructed with IAT showed significantachievement in science over their control groups. At the junior high school level,several studies about IAT implementation in ninth grade biology classes werereported. In Israeli Kibbutzim schools, pupils instructed by IAT (using the 'Cell'learning unit developed by Huppert & Lazarowitz, 1980) obtained significantlyhigher scores than pupils taught in a FCLM (Lazarowitz & Huppert, 1981). Intheir study, Lazarowitz & Huppert (1981) reported that the pupils' scores wasfound to be 70 points or higher for the majority of the learners, 70% (iV=50).Assuming a score of 70 or higher as an indicator of mastery learning, the researchshowed that twice as many pupils in the experimental group achieved this level(Lazarowitz & Huppert, 1982a). In another study, Huppert (1982), using otherunits of learning ('Introduction to Microbiology', 'Making Wine' and 'Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria') reported similar results for ninth grade pupils from kibbutzschools, who achieved scores at the range of 75-87 points (iV=l70).

Another variable studied in implementing the IAT method was gender. Whilestudies on academic achievement show that in general girls' scores in science arelower than those of the boys (Dar, 1975) studies on IAT instruction related togender did show that girls were successful like the boys in the IAT method inbiology instruction (Armstrong, 1971; Volker, 1971; Lazarowitz & Huppert,1981). Since gender is an important factor when a new curriculum or method ofinstruction are considered for implementation (Waetjen, 1965), it was of great

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Abilities and Achievement in a Biology Curriculum 119

interest to see whether or not girls' academic achievement in our research isconsistent with the studies' findings cited above.

Another independent variable investigated in this study was pupils' IQ levels asmeasured by three different measures. Our high school classes today are hetero-geneous and this problem imposes many questions on teachers regarding whatcan be the most appropriate method of teaching such classes in order to enablepupils with different abilities to achieve as much as possible.

In studies with pupils of different academic backgrounds, Holliday (1974) andBrice (1974) reported that below-average pupils increased their achievementwhen the audio component was studied. Low-ability pupils improved theirachievements when instructed in an IAT method (Novak et al., 1971) and pupilswho were found to be below the 40th percentile norms by standardised measuresof ability achieved higher than predicted in an IAT setting (Nordland et al., 1975).In a study by Kahle et al. (1976) it was reported that while the IAT and thetraditional mode of instruction were both effective for disadvantaged pupils, stillthe IAT method was more efficient for those pupils when learning time wasconsidered.

In another study, Kahle & Charles (1975) hypothesised that the IAT methodmay increase the achievement of pupils with low verbal abilities and provide waysof instruction for learners with different intellectual levels. Kahle (1978) men-tioned also that there is an increasing number of pupils with poor verbal ability insecondary schools.

While most of the reviewed studies reported results on pupils' achievementinstructed in an IAT method, very few were related to learners' academicbackground (like scores in mathematics and biology) or to IQ tests. ConsideringKahle's (1978) findings and the fact that our high-school pupils' population isheterogeneous in terms of abilities and academic achievements, we asked thefollowing questions while implementing the IAT method in an urban junior highschool.

(a) Do pupils instructed by an IAT method achieve higher scores than thecontrol group instructed by FCLM?

(b) Do girls achieve as well as boys in IAT settings?(c) Do pupils identified as low and high achievers in mathematics and biology

and with different IQ levels differ in their achievement as compared withthe control group while instructed in an IAT method?

In this study pupils' achievement on three IAT learning units was the depen-dent variable, and the methods of instruction (IAT and FCLM), gender, academicachievement in mathematics and biology, and students' IQ levels served as theindependent variables. The reasons for selecting the independent variables to bestudied were presented above.

The Research Design

The Sample

One hundred and eighty pupils from five ninth-grade classrooms participated inthis study. All pupils belonged to a city junior high school and were randomlyassigned to an experimental group (three classes, N=\0b) and to a control group(two classes, iV=65). Their ages ranged from 13-5 to 14-5 years. They had studied

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120 J. Huppert & R. Lazarowitz

biology in the seventh and eighth grades, having been instructed in the subjects'The Animal and Its Environment' and 'The Plant and its Natural Habitat'. Thesecurricula encompass the life of animals and plants, their structure and functionand the ecological aspects resulting from their interaction with their environment.In Israeli junior high school, pupils are expected to end their biological educationin ninth grade by studying the 'unity' part of the BSCS programmes, whichincludes the structure and function of the 'Cell'. Thus, none of them hadpreviously studied the subject to be taught during the experiment, namely the'Cell' learning unit. Due to mortality which occurred during the study, thenumber of pupils will differ for the different tests taken during the research.

Description of the Audio-visual Learning Units and the Procedure

The learning units used were: The Cell Membrane, The Cell Nucleus and The CellOrganelles. The description of the learning units developed for audio-visualinstruction, as well as the description of the procedure regarding laboratoryexperiments, the learning process, and the description of a typical period, weredescribed by Lazarowitz & Huppert (1981). In this study the above procedureswere strictly followed in order to assure conformity and similarity between thepresent study (with urban school pupils) and Lazarowitz & Huppert's (1981)study, in which kibbutzim school pupils were included. The study lasted for sixweeks, and each learning unit was learned during two weeks. The control groupstudied the 'Cell' topic using the BSCS learning materials in a frontal classroom-laboratory method of instruction in which the teacher directed all the learningactivities related to topics to be taught, pupils' pace on learning the sequence ofclassroom and laboratory work, as well as the time for the administration of theachievement test.

Instruments and Procedures

(1) Entry Behaviour

Pupils were pretested for knowledge in biology and prior information they havehad on cell subject. The test included 44 multiple-choice questions taken fromtests developed by BSCS (1968). Content validity of the test was established by sixbiology teachers and science educators who found the test appropriate for ninth-graders. This test was administered on the first day of the semester in which thepupils began to study the 'Cell' unit. For each correct question, pupils received 1point, thus the range of scores on this test was from 1 to 44 points. Data obtainedwere used for comparing the entry behaviour of the experimental and controlgroups and served as covariate for statistical analyses of the results. In their study,Huppert & Lazarowitz (1980) reported the value of 0-54 as a measure ofreliability for the entry behaviour test.

(2) Achievement Tests on the Three Learning Units

At the end of each learning unit (cell membrane, cell nucleus and cell organelles)an achievement test consisting of 20 multiple-choice questions was administered.The questions were taken from the BSCS (1968) yellow version. The scoring

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Abilities and Achievement in a Biology Curriculum 121

procedure for each test was accomplished by assigning 20 points to each test,according to the number of correct answers. Therefore, each pupil received threescores for the three tests. Content validities of the tests were established by thesame group of six biology teachers and science educators, who determined thatthe tests do represent the content learned in the three units.

All the three achievement tests used for the three learning units obtained avalue of reliability of 0-44 (Huppert & Lazarowitz 1980). The low value ofreliability obtained can be explained by the fact that this value was calculated forthe all three test results together and therefore the heterogeneity of the tests hadan impact on the reliability value.

(3) Academic Achievement in Biology and Mathematics

Scores in these two subject matters were provided by the respective teachers whotaught the pupils in the semester previous to the study. In these subjects all pupilswere instructed in a frontal classroom-laboratory approach and the scores repre-sented their achievement prior to the study while either the teachers or thepupils did not know about the study in which they would be involved later on orto what treatment group they would be assigned. Scores on these two subjectsserved as data for categorising pupils into three groups of academic level (Group1: 10 to 59 points; Group 2: 60 to 79 points; Group 3: 80 to 100 points). Thesame categorisation was used for biology and mathematics scores and are pre-sented in Table III and IV. This categorisation allowed us to compare pupils withdifferent academic levels on their achievement scores on the three learning unitsunder the two treatments.

(4) IQ Tests

These tests: Turim test (1976); the Otis (1972); and Raven's Matrices (1956) areadministered by the Psychological Services of the Schools at the end of the eighthgrade as criteria for streaming pupils into different academic trends in theirfurther studies in the junior high schools while attending the ninth grade. Thesetests were described, and their validities and reliabilities reported by Lazarowitz(1981). For this study, pupils' scores on the three IQ tests were provided by theschools' officials and served the investigators for categorising learners into threegroups of IQ level by each test, thus allowing us to compare the IQ groups'achievement in the three learning units.

This comparison was performed for the experimental group only, since ourstudy investigated the question whether pupils with different IQ scores can copewith an IAT method of learning at the same degree of success. In order to makesure that our results are consistent, we used the three scores obtained on thethree different IQ tests separately and not combined. Therefore separate statisti-cal analyses were performed for the three IQ test scores, rather than a combinedone. This decision was also made based on the fact that the three IQ testsmeasure different dimensions (Lazarowitz, 1981). The categorisation of pupilsinto the three group levels by IQ tests' scores is displayed at the bottom ofTable V.

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122 / . Huppert & R. Lazarowitz

Results

Pupils' mean scores on the previous knowledge in biology were analysed by a t-test and then served as covariate for an analysis of covariance with pupils' meanscores on the three learning units' achievement tests. The mean scores and theirstandard deviations are presented in Table I. From the results displayed in TableI, it can be seen while the entry behaviour of the control group, namely theprevious knowledge in biology, was significantly higher than that of the controlgroup; no significant differences were found between the groups due to thedifferent treatments. Thus, in spite of their low entry behaviour, the treatmentgroup achieved as well as the control group.

TABLE I. T-test and analysis of covariance of the mean scores on I AT of theexperimental and control groups

Testachievement

T-testPreviousknowledgein Biology(PKB)

Experimental group

meanAT (SD)

115 17-36(8-70)

N

65

Control

mean(SD)

20-04(9-18)

group

F-values

-2-04*

Analysis of covariance (PKB = covariate)Cell membrane 78 15-33 58 14-62 n.s.

(6-50) (3-44)Cell nucleus 82 11-70 55 12-67 n.s.

(6-95) (3-11)Cell organelles 74 15-80 60 15-90 n.s.

(3-13) (3-39)

* =-p<0-05; SD = standard deviations; n.s. = non significant.

Results regarding differences in achievement between boys and girls in theexperimental and control groups are presented in Table II. The mean scores ofboys and girls were treated by one way analysis of variance.

The results displayed in Table II indicate that while the entry behaviour of boysin the experimental group was significantly higher than that of girls(F=3-34—significant at 0-10 level only), the post-achievement tests in all threelearning units show no differences related to gender. Thus, girls did equally wellas boys in academic achievement when they learned in an IAT setting despitetheir low previous knowledge of biology. No significant differences between boysand girls were found in the control group, either. But while groups werecompared on their mean scores by gender, the following picture emerged. On theprevious knowledge in biology, boys and girls in the control group scored higherthan their counterparts in the experimental group. In the Cell Membrane andCell Organelles units, the experimental group received higher scores than the

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TABLE II. Analysis of variance of the mean scores on IAT achievement of the experimental and control groups by gender

Test achievement

Experimental group Control group

1

Mean(SD)

Mean(SD)

N Boys N Girls N Boys N GirlsBetweengroups

F-values

SD = standard deviation; n.s. = non significant.

Previous knowledgeof biology

Cell membrane

Cell nucleus

Cell organelles

53

35

39

34

20-83(6-62)

1502(419)

11-76(4-27)

1602(2-82)

55

47

48

47

18-54(6-36)

14-82(3-71)

10-89(3-87)

1604(3-26)

32

32

32

32

23-50(5-79)

14-51(3-82)

1209(3-41)

15-28(3-83)

31

31

31

31

22-61(4-24)

13-51(2-85)

12-28(2-90)

15-37(2-99)

1:2;

3:4;

1:3;2:4;

1:2;

3:4;

1:3;2:4;

1:2;

3:4;

1:3;2:4;

1:2;

3:4;

1:3;21:4;

3-34

n.s.

3-521008

n.s.

n.s.

n.s.2-78

n.s.

n.s.

n.s.2-97

n.s.

n.s.

n.s.n.s.

007

0060002

009

0 0 8

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124 J. Huppert & R. Lazarowitz

control groups, but significant differences were obtained only by the girls on theexperimental group on the first learning unit. On the Cell Nucleus unit theresults were in the opposite direction.

Can academic levels in biology and mathematics be good predictors of achieve-ment while pupils are instructed in an IAT approach? Our results displayed inTables III and IV clearly indicate a relationship between the pupils' academiclevels in biology and mathematics and achievement obtained on the three achieve-ment tests in the three IAT learning units.

As can be seen, pupils were divided into three academic groups, as wasdescribed earlier. Then the mean score in the three IAT learning units werecompared, using an analysis of variance. Results show that significant differenceswere obtained among the three levels. Pupils with low grades in biology andmathematics obtained low scores when the Cell subject was taught in an IATmethod, while pupils with middle and high scores in biology and mathematicsachieved higher on the IAT approach. Similar results were found for the controlgroup which was instructed in the same subject, 'The Cell', but in a frontalclassroom-laboratory approach.

The three tests used for measuring intelligence were as presented previously:(a) the Turim test, which measures intelligence by means of a set of numbers; (b)the Otis, which measures verbal ability, vocabulary concepts, and relations amongconcepts; and (c) Raven's Matrices, which is a nonverbal test considered tocorrelate highly with 'g' factor of general intelligence and is known as a measureof analytical thinking. This test was found to be appropriate for this study due tothe fact of being culture-free, and based on visual perception and not on verbalthought.

Data collected on these three intelligence scales helped to cluster pupils inthree categories: (1) low, (2) middle, and (3) high level, according to nationalnorms used by the Municipal Psychological Service of the schools. The meanscores obtained by pupils in the experimental group on IAT achievement testswere analysed by analysis of variance among the three categories mentionedabove, and are presented in Table V.

Results presented in Table V indicate that pupils with low scores on the threeIQ scales received significantly low scores on the three IAT achievement tests. Onthe other hand, pupils with higher scores on the three IQ scales obtainedsignificantly higher scores on the IAT achievement test. This pattern was commonfor both groups. Thus, pupils with different IQ scores obtained different scoresin an IAT mode of instruction.

Discussion

The results of this study clearly have shown that while the entry behaviour of thecontrol group was higher than the experimental group, no significant differenceswere found on achievement between the two groups on all three post-achieve-ment tests. Thus pupils in the experimental group, in spite of their low entrybehaviours, achieved at least as well as the control group. It should be mentionedthat while the same learning material, tests, and same procedures were used byLazarowitz & Huppert (1981) with kibbutzim high school pupils of the same ageas our pupils, the experimental group achieved significantly higher. While theresults are still encouraging, since our experimental group achieved equal to the

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TABLE III. Analysis of variance of the mean scores on IAT by achievement levels in biology

Test achievement on:

Previousknowledgeof biology

Cellmembrane

Cellnucleus

Cellorganelles

Groups

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

N

41

24

24

27

28

26

20

28

Level 1

(10-59points)

Mean(SD)

1707(5 05)21-29(418)11-33(4-13)13-29(3-47)7-78

(3-68)10-92(2-44)14-20(3-65)14-28(3-92)

N

18

17

16

18

19

19

21

19

Groups

Level 2

(60-79points)

Mean(SD)

20-38(5-77)22-58(316)17-37(2-39)12-61(3-20)14-21(2-20)1215(3 09)1609(2-58)15-42(2-43)

N

31

21

30

18

26

17

30

20

Level 3

(80-100points)

Mean(SD)

25-29(5-12)25-90(5-46)18-26(8-80)16-38(2-54)15-88

(10-40)14-52(2-80)17-66(2 05)17-40(2-23)

F-values

21-84*

6-28*

8-60*

7-56*

10-78*

8-82*

9-65*

5-88*

lilies ai

|ss

toS"

f-v

3.3

* Significant at 001 level; (1) experimental group; (2) control group.

t|« • < * .

sato

fa.aa"3

ISO

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TABLE IV. Analysis of variance of the mean scores on IAT by achievement levels in mathematics

Test achievement on:

Previousknowledgeof biology

Cellmembrane

Cellnucleus

Cellorganelles

Groups

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

(1)

(2)

N

25

9

15

10

14

9

7

10

Level 1

(10-59points)

Mean(SD)

16-60(5 00)21-11(2-61)10-46(3-29)14-40(3-37)5-71

(2-39)10-55(2-69)13-71(4-30)13-80(3 08)

N

21

24

17

26

19

25

22

22

Groups

Level 2

(60-79points)

Mean(SD)

2004(518)21-50(4-49)15-47(4-30)12-80(3-61)12-21(3-90)11-48(2-61)15-36(2-85)14-40(3-88)

N

37

27

29

26

32

27

34

33

Level 3

(80-100points)

Mean(SD)

22-83(6-37)25-40(4-83)18-62(8-89)1511(310)15-29(9-44)13-85(2-85)16-82(2-69)16-96(2-43)

F-values

8-94*

607*

7-17*

3-12**

8-87*

7-26*

3-93**

6-57*

Huppert

&

?o

1

Significant at 001 level; ** significant at 005 level; (1) experimental group; (2) control group.

I—1

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Abilities and Achievement in a Biology Curriculum 127

control group, these different results can be explained by the fact that whilegrades do not play an important role in pupils' status in kibbutzim schools, theydo in city schools. In city schools, grades are emphasized as a condition for statusand passage to a higher class. Therefore, one can hypothesise that teachers whotaught in the city-controlled classrooms probably felt threatened by the expectedachievement in the experimental group. According to neutral observers whom wehave placed in both experimental and control classrooms, teachers in the latterexercised more authority and stressed higher achievement. On the other hand, inexperimental classrooms, the atmosphere was more permissive and less orientedtowards higher achievement. The different results from both studies, with kibbut-zim and city school pupils, as well as other studies which are inconclusive inrespect to superiority of achievement gained by the IAT method, may suggest thatfurther research could be carried out while the control classrooms and theexperimental classrooms will be in separate schools, thereby freeing the teachersof the control groups from fear of new methods and their possible success.

Both in the literature as well as in our study inconsistent results regardingacademic achievements have been found. In order to find an explanation for thisinconsistency, one should look closely at the conformity expected in all studiesreported to the literature. This task is very difficult, since different studies useddifferent subject matter, different procedures, different lengths of instructionaltime, different pupils' ages, tests and statistical treatment. In other words, thedifferent independent variables used, as well as the different tools used tomeasure the dependent variable, namely achievement, make the task of finding anexplanation very difficult.

Therefore, we tried in our present study to look for more characteristics ofpupils which may give a partial answer. These characteristics included previousgrades in biology and mathematics and various measurements of intelligence. Inthe Israeli junior high schools, pupils' status is defined according to these gradesand tests. Our results clearly show that low achievers in all tests mentioned abovealso did poorly under the IAT method. Is the IAT method only for highachievers? Or, can we ask, are the IAT method's required skills, such as self-pacedlearning, personal responsibility, and the individualised aspects of this process,too difficult for the low achievers? The different levels of achievement of pupilsinstructed in an IAT setting, and which had connections with pupils' previousaccomplishment in biology and mathematics, as well as with their scores in threedifferent IQ tests, may emphasise the need of preparing the same topic to betaught in an IAT method at different academic levels, so each pupil can cope withit. Only then the individualised self pace approach can be used as an avenue todeal simultaneously with different pupils and meeting their needs and variousabilities. As to the issue of the needed new skills when a new method ofinstruction is implemented, there is no clear answer, but we think that a priorcondition should be considered. The condition is connected with the question:Can one cope with a new method of learning without previous preparation andwithout holding the prerequisite skills? As we know, any implementation of a newcurriculum or new method of instruction requires inservice teachers' prepara-tions. Are pupils an exception? Can one assume that pupils can use a new methodof learning without any previous preparation? No study related to the implemen-tation process of the IAT method in junior high school reported any kind of suchpreparation, nor did our study. Aronson et al., in their book, Jigsaw in the

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TABLE V. Analysis of variance of the mean scores on IAT by Turim, Otis and Raven matrices for experimental groups

Test achievement on

Previousknowledgeof biology

Cellmembrane

Cellnucleus

Cellorganelles

Tests

Turim"

Otis*

Raven matrices'

Turim

Otis

Raven matrices

Turim

Otis

Raven matrices

Turim

Otis

Raven matrices

N

43

46

15

29

26

9

31

32

11

31

29

6

Level 1

Mean(SD)

1816(5-72)17-71(5-24)16-73(6-19)14-31(4-79)1303(4-62)12-33(5-59)9-74(401)900(3-68)7-81(402)14-64(3-42)14-20(314)1400(4-28)

N

25

26

48

18

22

33

19

23

37

20

24

39

Level 2

Mean(SD)

21-96(4-77)

21-84(4-94)19-89(5-54)16-38(3 05)1709(2-58)1503(3-77)13-31(3-46)14-43(2-12)11-72(3-64)16-95(1-98)16-62(2-51)15-38(301)

N

8

4

10

5

4

9

8

3

9

7

4

10

Level 3

Mean(SD)

20-62(6-34)

27-25(5-85)

23-80(3-79)

24-20(2202)29-25

(22-51)2300

(1511)19-87

(18-69)32-33

(28-28)20-55

(16-86)1414(3-89)18-25(1-50)16-70(2-79)

F-values

3-90**

9-87*

500*

3-76**

10-67*

5-61*

5-95*

21-47*

7-83*

408**

6-86*

3-45**

* Significant at 001 level; ** significant at 0 05 level." Turim Level 1: 3-11 points; Level 2: 12-18 p.; Level 3: 19-26p.; * Otis Level 1: 6-20 points; Level 2: 21-31 p.Level 3: 32-43 p . ; c Raven matrices Level 1: 24-34 points; Level 2: 35-46 p.; Level 3: 47-60 p.

00

Si

1S5T

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Abilities and Achievement in a Biology Curriculum 129

Classroom (1978) asked about the necessity of preparing pupils and helping themto acquire the needed skills before they will be instructed in small co-operativegroups.

Perhaps one should not expect that such skills as pupils are required to use inconnection with the IAT method could be obtained by the use of the IATmaterial only. It could be hypothesised that skills like self-learning ability, mean-ingful reading, independence from teacher and self-responsibility, just to name afew important skills for pupils' achievement, are skills for which we have toprepare pupils before implementing a method like IAT. This comment is sup-ported by the fact that pupils in the experimental group have to deal simultane-ously with two matters: first mastering the new learning material, and second,performing new skills in this learning process, skills which are required by thenew method. At the same time, pupils in the control group have the advantage ofonly being asked to master the new learning material, since they learn in a waywith which they are used to and are not required to perform new learning skills.Therefore, it seems to us that the question as to how to help pupils master thenew skills needed and when, it is crucial when the implementation of a newmethod of instruction or curriculum takes place.

Results related to gender are encouraging. In our study, while the entryknowledge of the girls was lower than that of the boys, in the end girls achieved aswell as the boys. Similar results were reported by Lazarowitz & Huppert (1981,1982b). Thus, while we know at least in Israel that science teachers' expectationsfrom girls and self-expectations of the girls themselves are lower regardingachievement in science, in both studies with city and kibbutzim schools, girls'achievement was equal to that of the boys when the IAT method was used. Apartial support of the assumption that the individualised and audio-visual ap-proach may contribute to overcome social expectations regarding girls' achieve-ment can be foud in the more favourable attitudes expressed by the girls towardsthe different aspects of the IAT method which were reported in a study byLazarowitz & Huppert (1982b).

Based on the studies cited and our results, the following suggestions can berecommended. (1) The IAT method of instruction can be a vehicle through whichgirls may overcome some of the classroom learning environment aspects whichinhibit them from obtaining higher achievement in learning science. (2) Whennew science curricula or methods of instruction are to be implemented, theheterogeneous population of today's schools (in terms of different pupils' abili-ties) should be considered in order to assure that each pupil will have anopportunity to encounter successfully, as much as possible, the learning processof science.

Correspondence: Dr Reuven Lazarowitz, Department of Education in Technologyand Science, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.

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130 J. Huppert & R. Lazarowitz

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Abilities and Achievement in a Biology Curriculum 131

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