Lisa Karosas
2016 Differentiated Project
Summary of the Research
Results of this study clearly indicate the following:
Since no well-established controls were employed in the collection and analysis of the data for this research, it is not possible to conclude that this strategy is effective to enhance student learning of chemistry standards. The data does, however, show a great deal of promise.
Going forward the following investigations should be conducted to further clarify the potential success of using this technique in virtual science classrooms:
Future research may extend to include the following specific investigations:
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Students exhibit positive feelings toward the "Teaching with Analogy" technique.
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Student achievement may be enhanced for standard-based assessment items related to the employed analogies.
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A clear, complete mapping of the analog to the target is not necessarily required to effectively communicate why the analogy works.
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Analogies are effective at enhancing foundational "remembering" and "understanding" learning processes in accordance with Bloom's Taxonomy.
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The standard-based assessment results of a control group whose participants are not instructed using this technique must be compared to an experimental group of those who are.
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The literature should be consulted to establish a sound value for defining student "mastery" in virtual learning programs where so many aspects of the students' experiences differ from that of their traditional, brick-and-mortar counterparts.
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The depth of knowledge data could be more insightful if it were to include results of assessment items issued on semester tests administered long after the initial concepts were presented and discussed; if long-term retention of content were established as a consequence of using this strategy, it would reinforce the results found in this study which suggest that the low-level learning processes of "remembering" and "understanding" were most impacted.
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The effect of incorporating analogies as components of existing asynchronous content should be investigated. In this virtual learning program, some students are required to attend live, synchronous sessions while others are not; those who are no rely largely on an online, interactive library of content modules to promote learning. Determining the effectiveness of this strategy in the asynchronous, virtual space where no instructor intervention accompanies the analogy could prove informative to curriculum design for such programs. Similarly, if this study were initiated, it would be wise to choose another asynchronous student group for which instructor-narrated analogy maps were provided as part of the instructional modules. Control groups for this study would also need to be established.