The effect of Constructivist teaching method on learning of metrology and climatology of agricultural students

Because of implications for improving agricultural students’ learning and finally problem solving, creativity and employability, nowadays the modern teaching methods are a matter of great concern. Therefore, this study explored the effect of teaching methods on learning of agricultural students in Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. The study was carried out during a semester for metrology and climatology course. 75 students enrolled in the course were assigned to treatment and control groups. The experimental group was tough using the constructivist teaching method while the control group was taught using the traditional teaching method. Experiment was implemented for total of 20 hours over 12 weeks. The instruments used for measurement of learning in higher levels thinking and lower levels thinking were as follows, mid-term and final- term tests applying open-ended (free response) questions. The content validity of the tests was approved by several of teachers of metrology and climatology. The reliability of tests was measured through the examiners reliability based on scoring rubric method which respectively calculated as 0.997 and 0.991 for mid-term and final exams. The covariance analysis results revealed that the teaching methods had effect on total grades of the students at the semester. A further exploring of findings showed that there was no significant difference in the learning of two groups when it was separated based on levels of thinking and also when it was separated based on the mid-terms and final- term tests.