A Project-Based Instruction Approach to Improving Student Lunar Phases Learning Outcomes: A Quantitative Inquiry

Abstract

We investigated how students’ lunar phases learning outcomes were affected by student and teacher demographic characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, spatial thinking ability, and content knowledge). The study identified moderately strong correlations both between students’ spatial thinking ability and understanding of lunar phases, as well as between the pre-to-post-intervention scores of the two measures. Multilevel modeling showed significant predictors of learning outcomes from both student and teacher variables. This study furthers works on establishing a connection between student learning outcomes and the content knowledge and spatial ability for themselves as well as their teachers, and shows promise for a project-based instruction approach in aiding in lunar phases understanding.

Keywords

• lunar phases
• project-based instruction
• HLM
• astronomy
• middle school