The effects of the use of science-related humor on the achievement and attitude of grade IV pupils in elementary science

• Main Author: Cornelio, Helen Z.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1997
• Subjects: Performance; School children > Attitudes; Attitude (Psychology); Academic achievement; Teaching effectiveness; Humor in education; Physical Sciences and Mathematics; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1892
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study attempted to determine the effects of the use of science-related humor on the achievement in and attitudes towards science of grade IV pupils at Iriga Central School during the school year 1996-1997.Two sections out of three were randomly chosen as the groups to be used for the study. The experimental group composed of 40 pupils had science lessons with humor and the control group composed also of 40 pupils had science lessons without humor. To control the effect of the teacher factor, the two classes were handled by one teacher, the researcher. The lesson plans and the achievement test questions were given to the experts for validation. A set of questionnaires was used to serve this purpose. At the beginning of the experiment the two classes were pretested on the Attitude Towards Science and the Science Achievement Test. After four months of experiment, the same test and questionnaire were given as posttest to the respondents of the two groups. A comparison of the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the pretest revealed a difference which is not significant at 0.5 level. This indicates that the two groups were comparable in their achievement before the experiment. A test on the posttest results of the two independent samples showed that there is a significant difference between the mean achievement of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. this suggests that the use of science-related humor brings about greater learning gains in science. A t-test on the pretest and posttest of the two independent samples showed that there is a significant difference between the mean achievement of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. This shows that the use of science-related humor in teaching selected lessons in science results to a greater learning gains in the subject. Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions may be drawn:1. The teaching approach using science-related humor and teaching lessons without humor can be used interchangeably although the use of science-related humor in teaching selected science lessons effects better learning.2. Since the difference in the pretest and posttest attitude mean scores of the experimental and control group is significant, it may be inferred that the use of science-related humor improves to a great extent the attitude of pupils toward science.3. The lesson on Matter and Weather produced better pupil achievement when science-related humor is used in teaching.