Effectiveness of spiral approach in physics education

• Main Authors: Orillo, Jhoanne Catindig, Scheiter, Joseph
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Physics—Study and teaching; Science and Mathematics Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11567
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study highlighted the difference of the G11 and H4 students’ performance in Newtonian physics using pre and post tests scores. The G11 students came from the new K-12 curriculum, which followed the spiral approach of science teaching, while the H4 students came from the old RBEC, which followed the linear approach. Both groups took Newtonian physics simultaneously but had different physics exposure from G8 to G10 and H1 to H3. Pre and posttests were given to the students before and after proper discussion of Newtonian physics. Pre-test results revealed that the H4 students outperformed the G11 students in majority of the items in Kinematics, Forces, 1st Law and 3rd Law of Motion. On the other hand, posttest revealed that the G11 students were able to catch up with the H4 students for there was no significant difference in the average mean scores. Normalized gain revealed that the G11 students under the spiral approach learned more in Newtonian physics than the H4 students at p < 0.05. This might be caused by the competency, qualifications and seniority of the physics teachers and the number of years the students was taking physics (G8-10). The study revealed that the spiral approach of teaching physics was better than the old linear approach.