The Effect of Vee Maps and Laboratory on High- and Low-Order Content-Knowledge Achievement in Agriscience Education

Abstract

Instruction in the laboratory is essential to the success of a total agricultural education program. The development of students’ critical thinking, argumentation skills, technical skills, reasoning ability, and engagement are all found within the agriscience laboratory. Yet, utilizing the laboratory setting to its maximum potential is challenging for the instructor. The development of sound research-based assess- ment tools that enhance high-order thinking and are easily incorporated are needed in secondary agriscience education. This quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of two formative assessment tools on student high- and low-order content knowledge achievement. The Vee map was compared to the standard laboratory report in six different secondary schools across the state of Illinois. Utilizing student pretest score as a covariate, there was a statistically significant difference between groups on the high- order thinking posttest. Further, the study indicated that nine weeks later students who utilized the Vee map retained more low- and high-order knowledge than those who utilized the standard laboratory re- port. This study recommends the use of the Vee map as an effective formative assessment tool that should be utilized in agriscience education.