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6 The Effect of Learning Studies on Student Learning Outcomes KWOK Wing Yin and Pakey CHIK Pui Man In Chapter 4, we illustrated with evidence from the three-year research project how Learning Study can help to enhance the quality of teaching and learning through developing teachers’ professionalism in improving the curriculum, pedagogy, and use of diagnostic assessment. We also described the development of learning studies in the two primary schools during the three years of the implementation of the research project (2000–03) and the rapid spread of the use of Learning Study to over 100 schools in both primary and secondary sectors in the subsequent academic year (2003–04). Such a wide acceptance and adoption of Learning Study in the community within a short period of no more than five years is indeed encouraging. However, we have to be careful in drawing any conclusion that Learning Study is therefore an effective way to cater for individual differences. In Chapter 5, two Learning Studies are provided to give an in-depth account of how teachers focus on a specific object of learning and work in a typical Learning Study cycle to produce a research lesson, and how teaching can be related to learning and be enhanced. In this chapter, we attempt to provide a more comprehensive picture of how well students of different abilities performed in the Learning Studies. As explained in the previous chapters, the foremost step in a Learning Study is to identify the “object of learning” and the critical aspects/features associated with the object of learning. The pre-tests and post-tests are a major means to verify teachers’ thinking in those regards. As such, the data from the pre-tests constitute an input to the planning of the research lesson by informing the team about students’ prior understanding of the subject matter. The post-test, which is parallel to the pre-test, then shows the progress that the students have made with regard to the intended learning outcomes, and thus forms a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the research lesson. Therefore, in this chapter, we describe the overall result of the data comparing students’ gain scores between the pre-test and post-test in each of the learning studies conducted within the project. Triangulation is also made with the data 118 Kwok and Chik of the Hong Kong Attainment Tests in mathematics and Chinese language for two groups of students who participated in the research lessons in either subject throughout the three years of the implementation. Comparisons of students’ gain scores on the pre-test and post-test During the three academic years (2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2002/2003), a total of 29 Learning Studies were conducted. In 27 out of the 29 studies, pre-tests and post-tests were administered to the whole group of students who had participated in the research lessons, for diagnostic assessment. The other two studies, in which diagnostic tests were not administered to the whole group of students, were excluded from the analysis. The analysis consists of three types of comparison. The results are described in the following sections. Comparisons between the mean scores of the whole group in the pre-test and post-test In each of the twenty-seven studies, comparison was made between the mean scores in the pre-test and post-test of students who had attended the tests and the research lesson, and whose identities (e.g., name, class and class number) could be traced. A paired t-test (one-tailed) at the significance level of 0.05 (i.e., 95% significance) was also performed to examine if the change in mean score was significant, a null hypothesis being “the mean score of the whole group in the post-test is equal to or smaller than (≤) that in the pre-test.” In other words, the refutation of the null hypothesis means that the mean score of the whole group in the post-test is significantly greater than that in the pretest , i.e., the improvement students made in the post-test is significant on average. The results are summarized as follows (see also Table 6.1): a. In all twenty-seven Learning Studies, there was an increase in the mean score of the whole group in the post-test. b. In 24 out of the 27 studies, the increases in mean score in the post-test were significant on a paired t-test (one-tailed) at the significance level of 0.05...

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