Effects of Instructional Strategies and Proficiency Levels on Students' Achievement

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of selected instructional strategies such as Interactive Science Notebook (ISN) Method and Project-Based Learning (PBL) Method and the proficiency (Developing, Approaching Proficiency, Proficient and Advanced) level on the achievement scores of Grade 10 students in Polymer Unit Lesson of Organic Chemistry. This quasi-experimental research based on a 3 x 4 factorial research design involved 125 students. The objectives of the study were (a) analyze the effect of instructional strategies on student achievement scores (b) determine the interaction effect of instructional strategies and proficiency level on achievement scores of students and (c) determine what instructional strategy works best for each proficiency level. Researcher's developed achievement test was used as pretest and posttest. During the 3-week treatment, experimental groups were exposed to constructivism based learning strategies. After concept development, students were asked to create an infomercial poster and video based on their lesson. Data on gain achievement scores were analyzed through one-way and two-way ANOVA. Results shows that experimental groups performed significantly better than the control group (Lecture Method). It also showed that for students in the Developing and Approaching Proficiency levels they perform better in the ISN and PBL methods, for Advance level students increased their achievement scores by using ISN method. However, Proficient students increased their scores whatever instructional strategies was used on them. It is therefore recommended that collaborative type of instructional strategies should be used in secondary school Organic Chemistry classes.