Abstract
Investigation explored the mediating effect of small group poster activity on Taiwanese grade 11 students’ self-determined learning readiness (SD-LR). This poster activity paralleled small group discussions concerning the socio-scientific issue (SSI) topic of restarting Taiwan’s 4th nuclear energy plant. A corresponding survey was constructed to measure three scales: active learning (AL, measuring autonomy), critical thinking (CT, measuring competence), and group sociability (GS, measuring relatedness). The mediation role of GS verbal discussions verses GS with the visual hands-on prompt of a poster activity on the relationship between CT and AL among students (N=20) was examined. Partial least squares was used to test for mediation effects and the fitness of data to a three-factor model consisting of AL, CT, and GS. Results revealed good model fit to the data. Analysis of mediation effects of the three factors revealed no significant indirect or direct effects when students only verbally deliberated about the SSI. However, indirect effect of CT on AL and total effect of CT on AL were significant when students used the visual hands-on prompt of a poster activity. The inclusion of the mediator GS showed no significant effect of CT on AL, indicating that GS fully mediated the relationship between CT and AL. These results suggest that verbally deliberating exclusive of the visual hands-on prompt of the poster activity excited a mediation mechanism whereby critical thinking (CT) no longer had direct impact on active learning (AL), but instead worked indirectly by impacting group sociability (GS) which then enhanced active learning (AL).
Author Information
Brady Michael Jack, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
Hsin-Hui Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
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