The Effects of Knowledge-Transforming Text on Elementary Students’ Declarative, Procedural Knowledge, and Motivation in Environmental Learning

Abstract

In environmental learning, declarative and procedural knowledge is needed to to improve understanding of concepts and problem solving. The text used in KTT contains descriptions and arguments to understand declarative and procedural knowledge. This study aimed to investigate the effect of applying knowledge transforming text (KTT) on declarative, procedural knowledge, and students' presentation skill as well as their motivation towards learning with KTT applied in environmental education material. The study applied control group design. Prior to treatment, homogeneity tests were carried out with one way ANOVA test. Furthermore, in the experimental class instructional strategy armed with KTT was in place, the result of which was then analyzed by several quantitative analyses. These analyses included (1) normality test with a non-parametric one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test; (2) Mann-Whitney U test non-parametric statistic to compares the means between unrelated groups on some continous, and (3) significance tests. The results showed that KTT posed significant effect on declarative and procedural knowledge yet it insignificantly affected student presentation skills. The significant effects of KTT learning on declarative and procedural knowledge was supported by content space, rhetorical space, and corrective elements in KTT. Quantitaive descriptive analysis was carried out by interpreting the percentage of student motivation as investigated by questionnaires on KTT learning. Students were relatively motivated towards KTT and hoped to learn to use KTT.