The Impact of Student Centered Learning Strategies in Middle School Earth Science

Research continues to reinforce that student centered classrooms and interactive engagement (IE) strategies, when used effectively, can produce considerable gains compared to traditional instruction methods. In this study, IE strategies, primarily modeling instruction, were compared to traditional instruction in a middle school classroom to determine if IE strategies would have an impact in two specific areas: graphing ability and science reasoning skills. Class mean scores on tests were compared over time to show that IE strategies produced greater gains in graphing and science reasoning than traditional instruction for one group. The other group did not see significant differences in graphing or science reasoning based on instructional method. Student scores were also analyzed based on math preparations, and it was noted that students enrolled in pre-algebra math classes saw statistically significant gains in graphing. Results from this study suggest that using IE strategies in middle school science may have a positive impact on graphing ability and science reasoning skills