Presentation of courseware based on the pattern of understanding the concept and its effect on the level of learning and memorization of English lessons

Dissertation for receiving a master's degree in educational technology (M.A)

Abstract

         This research was conducted with the aim of presenting a courseware based on the model of concept acquisition and investigating its effect on vocabulary learning and memorization and comprehension of first year high school students in the English language course. This study is in the group of quasi-experimental researches with pre-test-post-test and control group in terms of practical production goal and implementation method. The statistical population included all female students of the first year of Paveh high school in the second half of the 2012-1993 academic year and the statistical samples were 57 people (28 people in the experimental group and 29 people in the control group) who were randomly selected and placed in the subject groups according to the available samples. The variables of this study were made by the researcher in the two parts of learning and memorizing vocabulary and understanding the English language and measuring the desired variables. For this purpose, a test of 40 questions in the form of four options was prepared in the vocabulary assessment section, and a test of 20 questions based on the taught material was prepared in the comprehension section. The content and face validity of the tool was determined using experts' opinions and their reliability was determined by retesting on 30 people from the statistical community in two 15-day time intervals and calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient. The calculated coefficients for the whole test were equal to 0.84 and higher than the critical limit of 70% and approved. The description and description of the data was done using descriptive statistics (the lowest score, the highest score, mean and standard deviation) and checking the hypotheses in the form of inferential statistics tests (independent t-test to determine the level of homogeneity or non-homogeneity of the groups at the beginning of the research and in the pre-test, as well as the covariance analysis test). The results showed that teaching using software based on the pattern of concept acquisition on vocabulary learning (F=21.82, Sig=0.000), comprehension learning (F=8.17, Sig=0.006), vocabulary memorization (F=16.93, Sig=0.000), and comprehension memorization (F=5.25, Sig=0.026) is more effective than the traditional way of teaching English in schools.

Key words: courseware, pattern of understanding the concept, English language, vocabulary, understanding.

Introduction:

Since long ago, education and training have been considered as important and desirable issues of various societies and educational systems have sought to find ways to improve the methods of teaching different subjects. Traditional methods of teaching have been used almost identically for thousands of years, but in today's world, new approaches to teaching and learning are gaining attention. Researchers have always sought to find an answer to fill learning gaps, solve problems and deficiencies caused by defects in the teaching and learning process. They search for ways to change repetitive and boring methods to interactive and enjoyable learning experiences for students (Salehizadeh and Asadi, 2012, p. 12). Therefore, despite the need and following the efforts made, many teaching-learning methods have changed significantly compared to the last two decades. And the sources of information, the ways of transferring and exchanging information and how our information is formed have also changed according to these changes (Davidson[1] et al., 2009, p. 8). The realization of these two requires the use of the five comprehensive senses and the use of direct and first-hand experiences. Experience shows that different senses do not play an equal role in human learning. Although in various sources, different figures are mentioned in this field, but in all of them, the greatest share is given to the sense of sight (Ehdian, 2012, p. 34). It is easy to use the sense of sight in multimedia programs and software, due to the use of visual media in the form of movies and photos. Therefore, today, many studies have focused on the use of computers and multimedia in education.

Education with the help of computers and multimedia offers special advantages for children. Among these advantages, we can mention visual presentation, self-regulated learning, very stimulating sound and graphics, immediate feedback and the opportunity to have control over your own learning (Black and Wood [2], 2003).. Although it is believed that educational multimedia provides rich resources that can be an opportunity for the growth of learners and that is the creation of a collaborative environment that allows learners and teachers to search and investigate a variety of issues. But educational software by itself has little effect on learning and teaching. Undoubtedly, this technology creates many opportunities for learning environments and causes significant educational interaction, but alone it cannot increase the quality of teaching and learning. This means that the learning and teaching environment, the supply of content, learner activities, how to implement learner activities, the process of measuring learners' performance and the process of feedback should be formed in a proportional way, otherwise there is no guarantee for the realization of educational goals (Haidri et al., 2019, p. 105).

On this basis, it is necessary to design and prepare these softwares based on scientific principles and according to the views, theories and teaching models in order to be able to have the necessary conditions to transfer concepts. This research was also done in this direction and in order to apply the principles of concept acquisition model in the design and preparation of a multimedia English language teaching for the first year students of the second year of high school and to investigate its effect on the learning and memorization of the English language in the target group students.

1-2 Statement of the problem:

Education is a process that cultivates human thought. According to Christian and McRobbie, the importance of thinking for humans is so much that life is not possible without it, and the main goal of any educational system is to make people think (Christian and McRobbie[3], 2012). In fact, every step on the way of thinking is only an attempt to help man thoughtfully in finding the path of his essence (Heidegger, 2011, p. 1). The importance of paying attention to thinking in the educational systems of the world in every era caused the emergence of new methods of education in which thinking and the scientific method of solving problems were emphasized. Among these educational methods, we can refer to the model of understanding the concept [4].

The model of understanding the concept was developed in 1985 by Joyce and Weil [5] and based on Bruner's theory of understanding the concept. They proposed three methods of this model, which are: acceptance-oriented model, choice-oriented model and unorganized material model (Bhaskara [6] et al., 2006, p. 11). This educational method can be used at any level and class and become the basis for improving the level of critical thinking and metacognitive skills of students (Mayer [7], 2012, p. VII). Examining the empirical foundations of the subject shows that the use of the model of understanding the concept has had positive effects in many researches. But today, with the growth and expansion of new educational technologies and the entry of these technologies into the field of education, attention to education based on courseware and digital methods has increased and has become a kind of requirement for learning environments. Therefore, the construction and application of courseware based on supported learning methods is of particular importance. This issue has become more necessary for difficult subjects such as English and requires new researches.

Using multimedia adds a new dimension to the dimensions of old teaching methods that were not available to teachers before (Heravi and Farkhandoost Haghighi, 2017, p. 22). Therefore, the power of these softwares in high level education on the one hand and the increasing complexities and needs of the current world in educational fields on the other hand, make us to turn to new, efficient and effective models in education and training (Norouzi et al., 2017, p. 11). And by applying the fundamental theories related to these models in the construction and design of multimedia, we will make the learning conditions of learners easier and easier.

Researches have shown that education based on multimedia can help students' understanding and memorization. In fact, educational multimedia is one of the media systems that, due to their multi-sensory nature, can easily adapt to all kinds of learning styles and provide easy and stable learning with various forms of interaction.