Abstract:
This study examined the effect of guided discovery and regular 5E teaching methods on Science achievement
of grade 9 students. A quasi-experiment included a prepost test design with a non- randomized treatment group and
5E regular teaching method as a control group was used in this study. Two Tamil medium National schools located
in Colombo district were selected using a criterion sampling technique. A sample of 147 grade 9 students (75 males
and 72 females) was drawn from their respective intact classes out of ten classes. Researcher-made Science
Achievement Test comprised of 20 multiple choice questions was administered before and after the treatment to
measure the level of student’s achievement in Science. The reliability of the tool 0.653 was established using test retest method. The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results showed that the
guided discovery teaching method was most effective in improving students’ performance in science. The adjusted
R squared value indicated that approximately 63% of the total variance in the posttest scores was accounted for by
the teaching methods used in this study. The difference between the achievements of male and female students
taught with guided discovery and regular 5E was statistically significant. Males outperformed females on science.
Also there existed a statistically significant difference in achievement among the high, medium and low achiever
groups in the experimental group. High achievers benefitted more when taught with guided discovery method, than
medium and then low achievers. It is recommended that science teachers should undergo extensive in-service
training for effective implementation of 5E learning cycle.
