Comparison of teaching methods based on active thinking (the Partnership method) and traditional teaching methods on the boy student s learning level of social studies

This study aims to compare teaching methods based on active thinking (the Partnership method) and traditional teaching methods on the boy student’s learning level of social studies in five areas of Tabriz. This research uses a semi-empirical method with pretests and posttests and which is functional regarding the objective. The statistical population of this research is all the male middle-school students of the five areas of Tabriz with a number of 10655 students in the course between 2012 and 2013. The sampling was conducted using a multi-stage random cluster method. Therefore the statistical sample size of the research is the students of two social science classes of first grade middle-school and from each class, after balancing the subjects, first group with 30 students getting a traditional teaching method and the second group getting a participated (active) teaching method with a number of 32 students were considered. A total number of 62 students were treated with the methods and the allocation of these methods to each class was random. To assess the learning level of these groups an educational achievement test was taken. The suggestions of teachers and experts were used to determine the content validity of the questionnaire. Reliability criterion ratios of the pretest and posttest were equal to 82% and 87% and the questions of the tests were presented in a mnemonic and significant learning level. To analyze the statistical data in case of each one of the research assumptions the ANCOVA test (covariance analysis) was used for the difference determination and comparison and calculation of the pretest and posttest grades in control and test groups. The results of the obtained data from the pretest and posttests of the test and control groups were compared and analyzed. The results from the covariance analysis indicated that there is a significant difference between the general, deep and slight learning grades in two test and control groups. In other words, the participated teaching method influenced the general and deep learning level promotion of the students and that the participated method is more effective than the traditional teaching methods. From the results of this research it can be concluded that the propagation of the participated teaching method will highly influence the deep learning of the students during education.