Effects of Cognitively Guided Instruction on Senior Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Physics

Abstract

In an effort to achieve educational goals and improve students' enthusiasm for Physics, it is important to take into account the prior experiences that students bring with them to the classroom. Teachers' exploration of these prior experiences is crucial when implementing the constructivist approach to classroom instruction, as it helps in achieving the desired objectives. Consequently, this research aimed to investigate how the application of cognitively guided instruction influences the attitudes of senior secondary school students towards Physics. The study employed a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design and utilized multilevel linear models for data analysis, considering the hierarchical structure of the data with participants nested at both classroom and school levels. Students’ Attitude to Physics Questionnaire was used to collect data during the study. The study's findings revealed a significant positive impact of cognitively guided instructional strategy (CGIS) on students' attitudes towards Physics, and a significant difference in the post-attitude mean scores of students in the CGIS and the conventional teacher-centred instructional groups. Thus, cognitively guided instruction holds substantial promise as an effective pedagogical strategy for teaching Physics. In conclusion, this research underscores the importance of contextualizing instruction, as it actively engages students in the learning process and significantly enhances their attitudes towards the subject of Physics. The instructional structure which CGIS provides enables the validation of students’ knowledge-creation ability.