The Development of Group Investigation Learning Activities for High School Students, Informal and Independent Education Center

Abstract

Background and Aims: Organizing science teaching activities to be effective and successful according to the curriculum requires teachers to adhere to the principles of student-centered education. Therefore, activities must encourage learners to discover themselves and find an understanding of what is meaningful to them. Developing collaborative group inquiry learning activities into a creative problem-solving process. Thus, the purpose of this research was to: (1) Develop Group Investigation learning activities for high school students with the efficiency criterion of 80/80. (2) study the Self-directed learning in Group Investigation learning activities for high school students. (3) Compare learning achievement between before and after using Group Investigation learning activities of high school students. And (4) Study for the satisfaction of students who learned through Group Investigation learning activities.

Methodology: The samples were 30 students of high school students in the 1st semester of the academic year 2019 at Kae Dam District Non-Formal and Informal Education Center, Maha Sarakham Province, and the samples were selected via Purposive sampling. The instruments used in this research consisted of the learning plan, Self–Self-directed learning assessment, scientific achievement test, and the questionnaire of student satisfaction. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test (Dependent Samples).

Results: (1) Development of Group Investigation learning activities on natural resources and the local environment which consists of heading, concept, learning standards, level learning standards, learning objectives, desired characteristics, activities, teaching materials/learning resources and Assessment. The six steps of group Investigation learning activities are detailed: identifying the topics, Planning the investigation in the group, carrying out the investigation, Preparing a group report, Presenting a group report, and Evaluating. The Group Investigation learning activities found that the efficiency was 80.97/80.41, which showed the efficiency with the 80/80 criterion. (2) Students are self-directed in their Group Investigation learning activities at a good level, (3) The average post-test score of the student after using Group Investigation learning activities was higher than the pretest at the .05 level of statistical significance. (3) Students had satisfaction with Group Investigation learning activities at a high level.

Conclusion: The development of cooperative group learning activities about natural resources and the local environment for high school students has a comprehensive structure and students show good self-direction ability in cooperative learning activities. This causes academic achievement after study to increase and satisfaction with this activity is at a high level.