ENCHANCING OF CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING ON TOPIC OF WEATHER PHENOMENA OF GRADE 5 STUDENTS THROUGH PHENOMENON-BASED LEARNING

Abstract

Abstract

        The objective of this study was to compare students’ conceptual understanding and the consistency or inconsistency of their conceptual understanding of weather phenomena before and after instruction through a phenomenon-based learning approach. The sample consisted of 30 Grade 5 students from a large-sized primary school in Ban Dung District, under the jurisdiction of the UdonThani Primary Educational Service Area Office 3, during the second semester of the 2024 academic year. The sample was selected using cluster random sampling, with the classroom as the sampling unit. The research employed a one-group pretest-posttest design. The instruments used in this study included (1) four phenomenon-based learning lesson plans on weather phenomena and (2) a conceptual understanding test on weather phenomena. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and percentage. A paired t-test dependent sample was used to compare the mean scores before and after the intervention. Consistency and inconsistency between students’ conceptual understanding and scientific concepts were analyzed using Crosstabulation and tested with McNemar’s Chi-Square test. The findings revealed that students’ conceptual understanding of weather phenomena after the instruction ( X = 25.93 or 54.02%) was higher than before the instruction ( X =5.63 or 11.73%). Furthermore, students demonstrated a positive shift in their conceptual understanding, with most students initially holding misconceptions or scientifically inconsistent conceptions, but after the intervention, the majority of students held conceptions consistent with scientific understanding.

Keywords: Phenomenon-Based Learning, Conceptual Understanding, Weather Phenomena