Effect of interdisciplinary approach on academic achievement and higher order thinking skills of school students in relation to their intelligence

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of Interdisciplinary approach on Academic achievement test and higher order thinking skills test was administered as pre-test and post-test to the students of experimental and control group. After pretesting, instructional material prepared on the basis of interdisciplinary approach was utilized to taught the experimental group and control group was taught through conventional approach. The gain scores were computed after implementing pre and post test on all the students. t-test was used to compare pre-tests and post-tests of both groups i.e., control and experimental and (2×2) Analysis of Variance was used to find interaction effect. The results of the study revealed that: (i) The mean gain academic achievement scores of experimental group taught through interdisciplinary approach was found significantly higher than that of control group taught through traditional teaching approach in social studies. (ii) The mean gain academic achievement scores of high intelligence group was found significantly higher than that of average intelligence group in social studies. (iii) There was significant interaction effect of instructional approaches and intelligence on academic achievement in social studies. (iv)The mean gain higher order thinking skills scores of experimental group taught through interdisciplinary approach was found significantly higher than that of control group taught through traditional teaching approach in social studies. (v) The mean gain scores in higher order thinking skills of high intelligence group were found significantly higher than that of average intelligence group in social studies. (vi)There was significant interaction effect of instructional approaches and intelligence on higher order thinking skills in social studies. Thus, the results implies that interdisciplinary approach was effective in enhancing academic achievement and higher order thinking skills of students in social studies. newline