Utilizing the Learning Promotion Potential (LPP) Framework to Facilitate Application of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills

Y

34

Foreign Countries; Thinking Skills; Cognitive Structures; Teaching Methods; Comparative Analysis; Instructional Effectiveness; Plants (Botany); Case Studies; Theory Practice Relationship; Program Effectiveness

1696-2095

Introduction: Different authors have proposed LPP as a pedagogical theorization framework to facilitate the linkage of psychological theory to teaching practice because it is useful for designing and assessing the effectiveness of pedagogical practice. This study aimed at testing the utility of the LPP-based theory-informed strategy at promoting learning and eliciting the application of higher-order cognitive skills with regard to plant nutrition. Method: An 8-session LPP-based teaching sequence was designed and implemented on the basis of LPP principles. Using a comparative case study, the effectiveness of the writer's use of the designed sequence to teach plant nutrition to a mixed-gender class of 13/14 year-old Kenyan students was compared with that of an experienced and well-regarded Kenyan teacher teaching a comparable class in the same school, using the same amount of contact time. Results: The findings show that LPP-based theory-informed strategy was more effective than the comparison teaching. Also the learners who experienced in the LPP-based teaching sequence progressively applied higher order cognitive skills in their hierarchy to the end of the teaching. Their comparison class counterparts' progress stopped at lower levels of the higher order cognitive skills hierarchy. Conclusion: LPP provides a potentially useful framework by which it is possible to evaluate a theory-based teaching strategy to establish its effectiveness. However, it is still difficult to conclusively link the overt and covert processes. (Contains 5 tables.)

As Provided

38

2010

EJ869211