The Development of Inquiry Learning Combined withConcept Mapping andCooperative Learning to Enhance Problem Solving Thinkingfor Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The purposes of this research were: 1) to develop of inquiry learningcombined with concept mapping andcooperative learning for undergraduate students, 2) to study the efficiency of inquiry-based learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning for undergraduate studentsat the established requirement of 80/80, 3)to compare problem solving thinking of studentsbetween before and after learning based on inquiry learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning, and 4) to compare academic achievement between before and after learning based on inquirylearning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning, The participants were consisted of: 1) the informant group for observing and interviewing on learning managementwere14teachers and student from early childhood education, faculty of education, Pitchayabundit college, those obtained using purposive sampling method,2) the trying out group of14first year student in early childhood education, faculty of education, Pitchayabundit college, and 3) the experimental group with17 first year student in early childhood education. The research instruments were comprised of; 1) observing on behavior form for the classroom learning management, 2) interviewing form forteachers, 3) plans for learning management based on inquiry learning with concept mapping and collaborative learning of15 plans 4) a 5-item of subjective test for problem solving thinking, and 5) a 30-item test of academic achievement. The statistics used for analyzing data were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test (Dependent Samples) was employed for testing hypotheses.

            The results of study were as follows:(1)Thelearning management for students showed lacking of thoughtful abilities in problems solving and needed to improve on higher level, and revealed the process of learning management using inquiry learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning for undergraduate students that composed of 5 steps, which were: 1) Engagement step, 2) Exploration step, 3) Explanationstep, 4) Elaborationstep and 5) Evaluation step assessing of knowledge. Whereas, the result of evaluating for the quality and appropriateness of learning management by experts for each plan were at a high to highest level, and result for overall plans was at a high level. (2) The efficiency of learning management based on inquiry-based learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning for undergraduate students, was87.21/85.76, which higher than the established criterion of 80/80.(3) The students who learned based on inquiry-based learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning showed higher of problem solvingthinking than before learning, at the .05 level of significance.(4) The studentswho learned based on inquiry-based learning combined with concept mapping and cooperative learning showed higher of academic achievement than before learning, at the .05 level of significance.