“The Effect of Using the (Harwood) model on Achievement of the First-Grade Intermediate Students in Chemistry and their Cognitive Flexibility”

Abstract

The current research aims to investigate the effect of using the Harwood investigative model on the chemistry achievement of first-year middle school students. To achieve the research objective, the researcher formulated the following null hypothesis: "There is no statistically significant difference at the (0.05) level of significance between the mean scores of the experimental group students, who studied chemistry according to the Harwood model, and the mean scores of the control group students, who studied the same subject according to the conventional method, in the achievement test." The researcher adopted a quasi-experimental design with partial control for the two research groups. The research population was limited to day middle and high schools affiliated with the General Directorate of Education in Al-Anbar Governorate / Karma District. The research sample was randomly selected, consisting of (61) students, distributed into two groups: (31) students for the experimental group and (30) students for the control group. To measure the research variable, the researcher constructed an achievement test consisting of (40) items, divided into (32) objective multiple-choice items (with four alternatives) and (8) essay items. The face validity of the test was verified by presenting it to a panel of experts, and its reliability was calculated using the Cronbach's alpha equation, yielding a reliability coefficient of (0.720). After the experiment concluded, the research instrument was administered, and data were collected and statistically analyzed using the independent samples t-test. The results revealed the superiority of the experimental group students, who studied according to the Harwood model, over the control group students, who studied according to the conventional method, in the achievement test, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis. In light of these findings, the researcher reached several conclusions and presented a set of related recommendations and suggestions mentioned in Chapter Four.