Browsing by Author "Durgadeen, Lucy"

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    A theoretical framework for research in science curriculum implementation strategies
    Durgadeen, Lucy;
    Curriculum development in the Caribbean has been based mainly on a Piagetian rationale, the emphasis being on the need to match the cognitive demands of a programme with the intellectual development of the students. This paper describes two research frameworks in cognitive psychology--the levels of processing model and schema theory--with implications for science education research and focuses on "elaborating" as an effective information processing strategy. The findings of a study of the elaborative activities of some secondary school students in Trinidad are presented
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    Elaborations: Differences in metacognitive behaviour of successful and less successful science students in Trinidad
    Durgadeen, Lucy;
    Elaboration is the manner in which learners embellish and encode knowledge. For elaborations to facilitate learning and enhance memory, they must be precise and represent a non-arbitrary association between the to-be-learned material and the learner's prior knowledge. The study described here sought to assess the effect of precise and imprecise elaborations on the science learning of successful and unsuccessful secondary science students
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    Elaborations: Differences in the metacognitive behaviour of successful and less successful students
    (1986) Durgadeen, Lucy;
    Scores on teacher-made tests were used to rank 88 second-year science students in a secondary school in Central Trinidad, as successful and less successful. Different subjects chosen from the sample were tested in three phases: 1) subjects received base sentences and were asked to generate endings (elaboration) that would help them to remember information supplied in the base sentence, 2) subjects rated a mixture of sentences for comprehensibility, and 3) subjects were asked to rate sentences in sets as easy or difficult to remember. Cued recall tests were administered after each phase. The study showed that successful students generate significantly more precise elaborations than less successful students and the precise elaborations facilitated recall even when students were unaware of the powerful effect of precision on retention. The success of training in elaborative activities indicates that some students suffer from a mediational or production deficiency since they may have the required knowledge and skills but fail to employ learning strategies spontaneously