Research Publications

Academic theses and dissertations are regularly published and widely disseminated in YUOE Journal, Monographs, Universities Research Journal (URJ), Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science (MAAS) Journal, AsTEN Research Journal and International online Journals for sharing knowledge and contributing to the development of our education.

Myanmar Academy of Art & Science List of Research

No. Researcher Title Abstract Year
1921 Hhin Hay Mar Win AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ON STUDENTS' SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of inquiry-based learning method on students' academic achievements in science at the middle school level. The design used for this study was the quasi-experimental with non-equivalent control group design. Two basic education high schools were selected through purposive sampling method from Sagaing Township. Total of (167) Grade eight students in (2019-2020) Academic Year from two different classes of selected high schools were involved in the study. Two intact classes were randomly selected and the group which was assigned as experimental group was instructed through inquiry-based learning method whereas the other group was traditionally instructed in each school. To determine the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning method over conventional method, an achievement test about science which consisted of (25) items was administered as pretest and posttest to students both in the experimental and control groups. According to the pretest results, the students in both groups were equivalent in general science knowledge. The data obtained from posttest were analysed by the independent samples t-test to compare the achievement of the students between groups. Findings showed that there was a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group for the scores on science achievement test in HS 1 (t = 3.826, p<.000) and HS 2 (t = 7.114, p<.000). According to the result, the use of inquiry-based learning method has significant effect on the science achievement of the students from each school. Therefore, inquiry-based learning method positively contributed to the science teaching method at the middle school level. 2021
1922 Myo Myint Swe IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFICULT AREAS IN PHYSICS PERCEIVED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND EXPLORATION OF THEIR REASONS The main purpose of this study is to identify difficult areas in physics perceived by high school students and to explore the reasons for these difficult areas. The QUA N-QUA L model was used in this study. The results revealed that the two textbooks involve difficult areas for the students with different levels of difficulty and different schools have different difficult areas. However, some content areas are very difficult for almost all of the students from different schools. These areas include vector symbols and addition of vectors, resolution of vectors, motion graphs and their interpretations, freely falling bodies, the turning effect of a force, area expansion and volume expansion, and transverse and longitudinal waves in Grade Ten and the stretching of threads and strings, pressure in a liquid, heat transfer by radiation, the nature of light, and capacitance of parallel plate capacitors in Grade Eleven. Concerning the reasons, the factors related to students, textbooks, teachers, and content influence students' difficult content areas. Among them, the factors related to students and content are the main reasons. The first factor includes disinterest in the lessons, lack of practice to review the lessons regularly, reading the problems carelessly, and lack of mathematical skills. For content-related factors, complex formulae and mathematical concepts are the main reasons. Moreover, prescribing many chapters and language barriers added to the difficulties of the content areas. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the curriculum developer should reflect and analyze the difficult content areas and synchronize them with mathematical concepts. The students should review and practice what they have learned and the teachers should teach the formulae and mathematical concepts involved in these areas clearly. To sum up, the two high school physics textbooks include difficult content areas, and all the students, teachers, and curriculum developers should emphasize these areas. 2021
1923 May Thiri zaw THE EFFECT OF CONTEXTUAL INSTRUCTION IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL This study is designed to investigate the effect of contextual instruction in teaching reading comprehension at the high school level to help students connect their reading materials to the reallife situations. This study is an experimental research and the design adopted was nonequivalent control group posttest-only design, one of the quasi-experimental designs. Simple random sampling technique was used in this study involving (139) participants who were Grade Ten students from two basic education high schools. In order to measure their reading comprehension, the posttest containing seen passages and unseen passages was administered to the students who received contextual instruction and those who did not after giving the treatment. Moreover, the students’ attitudes of the experimental group towards contextual instruction were examined by using a set of questionnaire. The data from the students were analyzed by using the independent samples t test and descriptive statistics. According to the results, there was a significant difference between the students who were exposed to contextual instruction and those who were not. Therefore, this study showed that contextual instruction can give a positive contribution to teaching reading comprehension to high school students. 2021
1924 San Aye PERFORMANCE EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEACHERS IN SAGAING TOWNSHIP The purpose of this study was to explore the performance effectiveness of the high school biology teachers in Sagaing Township. Twenty-seven biology teachers from twenty-five basic education high schools participated. A sample of (402) Grade Ten students and (106) Grade Eleven students was randomly selected. Teacher self-assessment form was used to examine the biology teachers’ performance in such areas as demonstrating an understanding of biology content knowledge, planning, instructional delivery, assessment of student learning and their professional development activities. By using a questionnaire, students’ perception on their teachers’ performance was found out. Teachers’ self-assessment results showed that the teachers have much biological content knowledge. However, their performance in instructional planning and instructional delivery; in assessing student learning and giving feedback for student progress were partially effective and they realized that their performance needs to be improved. Especially, they could not create learning activities and use instructional technology effectively and they did not have sufficient professional development activities rather they had just discussion with their colleagues. According to the students’ responses, there was no laboratory in nearly half of the high schools. Therefore, half of the high school students might not have the opportunity to get science practical experiences. Although there were weaknesses mentioned above, the teachers’ strengths were also found in such a way that high school biology teachers used textbook effectively; they explained biology concepts in relation to the students’ real life situation. Most of the students claimed that their teachers never do only reading the textbook. In conclusion, this study explored the current situation of the high school biology teachers’ performance and these results might be helpful in implementing the future teacher professional development programs. 2021
1925 Myat Su Naing THE EFFECTIVENESS OF KEY QUESTION STAR GRAPHIC ORGANIZER IN TEACHING GRADE NINE SCIENCE The main aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of key question star graphic organizer in teaching Grade Nine Science. The numbers of subjects in this study were (180) Grade Nine students from No, (1) and (3) Basic Education High Schools in Sagaing Township. The pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design was used. The instruments for this study were pretest, posttest, and lesson plans. The sample schools were randomly selected, and the participants were chosen by the use of random sampling method. It took two weeks for the treatment. The experimental group was taught by using the key question star graphic organizer while the control group was taught by the traditional teaching method. To compare the means of the students’ pretest scores from both schools, independent sample t- test was used. As the means were different, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze and compare the results of the posttest scores. Based on the findings, there were significant differences between the total achievement scores of the two groups on the Bloom’s taxonomic levels of cognitive domain for the selected school, BEHS 3. Thus, it was found that the experimental classes did better than the control. However, there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups of the school, BEHS 1. 2021
1926 Soe Soe Thein A STUDY OF GRADE NINE STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICAL THINKING SKILLS IN RELATION TO MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT The main purpose of this study was to investigate the Grade Nine students’ mathematical thinking skills in relation to mathematics achievement. A Quantitative research design was used. In this study, total of (397) Grade Nine students from two private schools and two public schools in Mandalay City Development Area were chosen. To collect the data, two instruments: (1) a test for students’ Mathematical thinking skills test based on Lutfiyya’s (1998) some aspects of mathematical thinking and (2) achievement test based on Grade Nine mathematics textbooks, were used. The mathematical thinking skills test included five major aspects: (1) generalization, (2) induction, (3) deduction, (4) logical thinking, and (5) problem- solving skills. In the analysis of data, one-way ANOVA, independent samples t-test, and Pearson product-moment correlation were used. According to the results, there were no significant differences in the mathematical thinking skills of Grade Nine students in terms of gender and type of school. Moreover, the results revealed that there was no significant difference in the mathematics achievement of Grade Nine students in terms of gender but a significant difference in terms of type of school. Furthermore, the result of the present study showed that Grade Nine students’ mathematical thinking skills were significantly and positively related to their mathematics achievement and the strength of correlation was typical (r=.367). It can be concluded that students who have highly mathematical thinking skills tend to have higher mathematics achievement test scores. Therefore, this study made a positive contribution to the development of mathematics education in Myanmar. 2021
1927 Su Lae Yi THE EFFECT OF HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES ON THE ACHIEVEMENT OF GRADE TEN BIOLOGY STUDENTS The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of hands-on activities on the achievement of grade ten biology students. Specially, this study aims to compare biology achievement between students who receive instruction with hands-on activities and those who receive instruction without hands-on activities. The design adopted in this study was posttestonly control group design which is one of the true experimental designs. Two basic education high Schools, No.1, BEHS, Taungdwingyi and No.3, BEHS, Taungdwingyi were selected. A sample of (120) grade ten biology students was used in this study. Posttest was constructed based on the content area of Chapter (5), A Variety of Living Organisms: A Bony Fish. Treatments were conducted separately to two groups. The experimental groups were taught with hands-on activities and the control groups were taught without hands-on activities. Independent samples t test was used to analyse the data. The results showed that the performance of students who were taught with hands-on activities was significantly better than that of students who were taught without hands-on activities at knowledge, comprehension and application levels and on overall posttest achievement scores. Therefore, the findings indicated that the use of hands-on activities has significant effect on the achievement of students in teaching biology. 2021
1928 Thin Myat Khwar Nyo THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BUZZ GROUP TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING SCIENCE AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of buzz group technique in teaching science at middle school level. The design adopted in this study was quasi experimental design. Basic Education High School and Post Primary School, Mogok were randomly selected from Mogok Township by using random sampling technique. The participants in this study were 166 Grade Eight students from the selected schools. Two intact classes were randomly selected and assigned to two groups as experimental and control groups. The instruments in this study were pretest and posttest questions. According to pretest results, the students in both groups were equivalent in general science knowledge. The students in the experimental group were taught with buzz group technique while the control group was taught with conventional teaching method. The independent samples t-test was used to find the effectiveness of buzz group technique in achievements of students between groups. According to the results, there were a significant difference between the group of students who were taught by buzz group technique and those who were taught by conventional method. Therefore, the research findings showed that buzz group technique contributed higher achievement in science learning of all students than the use of conventional teaching methods. 2021
1929 Thida Wai THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND TEACHER DIRECTED INSTRUCTION ON GRADE TEN STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN PHYSICS The major purpose of this research was to study the comparative study of cooperative learning and teacher directed instruction on Grade Ten students’ achievement in physics. This study was conducted with both quantitative and qualitative research methods. For quantitative research, an experimental study was used to study the effects of cooperative learning. In this experimental study, the subjects were Grade Ten students selected from No (1) BEHS Insein and No (2) BEHS Mayangone. The experimental designed adopted in this study was a true experimental design, namely, posttest only control group design. For this study, (120) Grade Ten students were selected from both schools by random sampling method. These students were divided into two groups: control and experimental. The experimental group was treated with cooperative learning and the control group was taught as teacher directed instruction. After that, a posttest was administered to two groups. Independent samples t-test was used to test whether there was significant difference between these two groups. Examination of the means and t-test at No (1) BEHS Insein (t=4.40, df = 58, MD=11.97, p=.000) and No (2) BEHS Mayangone (t=3.98, df=58, MD=12.90, p=.000) indicated that students who were taught by cooperative learning demonstrated significantly better than those who were taught as teacher directed instruction. The qualitative data also supported the findings from the experimentation. For this research study, students from the experimental group from two selected schools were given a questionnaire. It consists of (15) items four-point Likert scale. The results showed that the students expressed their willingness to learn in cooperative learning and they had positive attitudes towards cooperative learning. Research findings proved that cooperative learning has positive contribution to the physics teaching at Grade Ten. 2021
1930 Su Myat Nyein AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SMALL-GROUP WORK STRATEGY IN TEACHING HISTORY AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL The aim of this research is to determine the effects of small-group work strategy in teaching history at the middle school level. The design applied in this study was nonequivalent control group design, one of the quasi experimental designs. In order to do this study, two basic education high schools from Taungtha Township were randomly selected. The participants were (165) Grade Nine Students in 2019-2020 Academic Years. A pilot study was conducted with forty Grade Nine students at Basic Education Middle School, Kandaw in Taungtha Township. After that, internal consistency among the test items was computed and got Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha of .867. Two intact classes were randomly selected and assigned into control and experimental group in both schools. At first, pretest was administered upon both groups. According to the pretest results, two groups in each school were equivalent. Then, experimental group was exposed to small-group work strategy, while control group was administered through the conventional method for four weeks. After treatment, both groups received a posttest. In order to test the research hypothesis, independent samples t test was used. The results were indicative of the effects of small-group work strategy, and the difference of means in both groups were significant at p<.05 and p< .001 levels in answering remembering, understanding and applying level questions. But, there was no significant difference in answering analyzing level questions. Therefore, the results showed that using small- group work strategy had a positive effect on the students’ history achievement. But, small-group work strategy could not increase the analyzing level skills. Finally, suggestions, according to the results, are proposed, expecting to provide small-group work strategy and help students establish learning achievement in teaching history. 2021