Effects of integrated video media on student achievement and attitudes in high school chemistry

Abstract: This study explored the effects of an integrated video media curriculum enhancement on students ’ achievement and attitudes in a first-year general high school chemistry course within a multicul-turally diverse metropolitan school district. Through the use of a treatment-control experimental design, approximately 450 students in Grades 9–12 were sampled on measures of chemistry achievement and at-titude over the period of 1 academic year. The results revealed significantly higher achievement scores on standardized measures of achievement as well as on microunit researcher-designed, criterion-referenced quizzes for the treatment students who experienced a general chemistry course enhanced with an integrated use of a structured chemistry video series. Correlation of student achievement with logical thinking abili-ty revealed that students with high levels of logical thinking ability benefited most from the video-enhanced curriculum. Treatment students also scored significantly higher than control students on the chemistry at-titude instrument. These results along with qualitative supportive evidence suggest that this integrated video media curriculum intervention can positively affect student chemistry achievement and attitude across ability levels and across a diverse multicultural population. Furthermore, the data suggest that ed-ucational science video media in general, and the World of Chemistry video series in particular, are in-structional tools that can be used effectively to bring the often abstract, distant worlds of science into close focus and within the personal meaningful realm of each individual student. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons