Comparative Effects of Inductive and Deductive Teaching Methods on Elementary Students’ Academic Achievement in Science: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The present study aimed to compare the effect of two teaching methods (inductive and deductive) on academic achievement in science for elementary students. A quantitative true experimental design (pretest – posttest control group) was used. A total of 60 elementary students were randomly selected from an accessible population of 132 and equally divided between experimental and control groups. The experimental group taught with inductive teaching method and the control group taught with deductive teaching method. Data were gathered using a researcher-made Science Achievement Test (SAT) inspired from Bloom's Taxonomy, which was expert-tested and piloted. Descriptive statistics and independent and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze the data, as well as One-Way ANCOVA. The gain scores and post-test achievement of the experimental group were found to be significantly higher than those of the control group in the results. The ANCOVA results also showed that there was a statistically significant difference in students' science achievement due to teaching method after the pre-test scores were considered (F = 105.735, p < .05, η² = .650). The findings showed that the implementation of inductive teaching model was more effective in improving science achievement of science students at elementary level than deductive teaching model. The study suggests that teachers use more activity-based, inductive and enquiry-based teaching methods to improve students' understanding of concepts and academic achievement in science; and curriculum planners should add more student-centered learning tasks to a curriculum to enrich students' conceptual understanding and academic achievement in science.

Keywords: Inductive Teaching Method, Deductive Teaching Method, Science Achievement, Elementary Students, Experimental Study, Academic Achievement