The effect of verbalizers on the achievement of non-verbalizers in an enquiring classroom

This study investigated the effect of verbal participation during enquiry sessions on achievement. Other factors examined included intelligence characteristics of participants and non-participants and question categories for each treatment group. The Suchman questioning procedure was used. Twelve eighth grade science classes were assigned to three treatment groups of four classes each. Treatment A consisted of a film, a pretest on the film, the enquiry session, and a posttest. Subjects in treatment B were not administered the pretest but engaged in unguided discovery. Treatment C students submitted five questions each on paper after having viewed the film. Three such enquiry sessions were conducted. Each class was also administered an I.Q. test, a reading test, a sociogram, and an academiogram. In all treatment groups the mean I.Q. of the participants exceeded that of the non-participants. With I.Q. controlled, significant differences in mean achievement were found between the participants and non-participants in the higher categories (3:00 to 6:00) of the Bloom taxonomy but not on the lower (1:00 to 2:00) categories. With adjustment for ability, the highest mean achievement in both the composite and higher category was attained by the group given maximum guidance by means of the pretest. Participation was found to be independent of sociometric position in the classroom but not of academiometric position. Sex and participation were found to be dependent upon each other, with more boys and fewer girls participating than was expected. In the analysis of questions written by students in treatment C, it was found that the participants wrote a substantially higher percentage of “directed” questions than did the non-participants. No significant difference in the distribution of questions was evident between treatment groups A and C but group B differed significantly from both. It would appear that student verbal participation in the classroom is associated with achievement at the higher cognitive levels.