THE EFFECTS OF USING PROBLEM-BASED INSTRUCTION IN THE TOPIC OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY OF GRADE 12 STUDENTS AT RAJAPRAJANUGHOR 15 (WIANGKAOSAENPUWITTAYAPRASAT) SCHOOL IN CHIANG RAI PROVINCE

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to compare learning achievements in physics subject of Grade 12 students on Nuclear Physics in problem - based instruction with traditional instruction; (2) to compare the ability of scientific problem solving ability in problem - based instruction with traditional instruction; and (3) to compare scientific problem solving ability before and after learning through problem - based instruction. The research sample consisted of grade 12 students in the science-mathematics learning plan. There were 58 students in 2 classroom selected by cluster random sampling. The research tools were: (1) problem-based learning activity plan in the topic of Nuclear Physics; (2) traditional instruction plan in the topic of Nuclear Physics; (3) Physics learning achievement test; and (4) scientific problem solving ability test. Statistics employed for data analysis were the mean, standard deviation and t-test.

The results of the research revealed that (1) the learning achievement in physics of the students in the group that learned through problem-based instruction was significantly higher than the counterpart learning achievement of the student in the group that learned through the traditional instruction at the .05 level of statistical significance; (2) the scientific problem solving ability of students in the group that learned through problem-based instruction was significantly higher than the counterpart learning achievement of the student in the group that learned through the traditional instruction at the .05 level of statistical significance; and (3) the post-learning scientific problem solving ability score of the students who learned through problem-based instruction was significantly higher than pre-learning counterpart score at the .05 level.