Employing the David Merrill model in teaching biology and its impact on achievement and developing metacognitive skills among fifth-grade students in biology.

Abstract

The aim of the research is to employ the steps of the David Merrill model in teaching the biology curriculum and to find out its impact on the achievement of the fifth grade biology students, and whether there is a development of their metacognitive skills. The research sample consisted of two groups (experimental and control) with (39) students in each group. To achieve the two research hypotheses, the researcher needed two tools: the first is to build an achievement test for the subjects included in the experiment. The number of its paragraphs was (20) and it was of the multiple choice type. The second was to prepare a scale for metacognitive skills. It consists of (30) paragraphs. The coefficient of honesty, degree of difficulty, discrimination and stability were found. The results showed that the students of the experimental group who studied according to the David Merrill model excelled over the students of the control group in achievement and metacognitive skills.