Student Achievement, Attitudes, and Thinking Skill Attainment in an Integrated Science/agriculture Course

256 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992.The purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of an integrated agriculture and science course, Biological Science Applications in Agriculture (BSAA), to that of traditional horticulture courses, as measured by change in student achievement, attitudes, and thinking skill attainment.The study was conducted using intact groups. Comparison group one consisted of 76 students from 6 schools enrolled in the BSAA course. Comparison group two consisted of 102 students from 8 schools enrolled in traditional horticulture courses.Each student's cumulative grade point average was gathered as a covariate measure in the study. Agriculture and science achievement pre-tests were administered to the BSAA group before instruction began. A parallel agriculture and science achievement post-test was administered to the BSAA group at the completion of each instructional unit. A science achievement pre-test was administered to the horticulture group before instruction began, and a parallel science achievement post-test was administered after completion of the course. A science and agriculture attitude instrument was administered to both groups before instruction began and a parallel instrument was administered after completion of the course. The Watson-Glasser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Form A, was administered to students in both groups before instruction began, and the parallel Watson-Glasser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Form B, was administered after completion of the course.Statistical analysis of the data showed significant agriculture and science knowledge gain in four out of six units for the BSAA group. No significant gain in science knowledge was found for the horticulture group. Neither group exhibited significant change in attitude toward science or agriculture. In addition, neither group exhibited significant gains in composite thinking ability.Implications for practice indicate that BSAA is effective in advancing student knowledge in agriculture and biological science. Because of the advantage of the BSAA course in the area of student achievement in biological science and in agriculture, the BSAA course should be added to the curriculum of high school agriculture programs in Illinois.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD