ENHANCING LEARNING OUTCOMES OF SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATES: THE BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE PARADIGM

International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD) ISSN (P): 2249–6890; ISSN (E): 2249–8001 Vol. 10, Issue 3, Jun 2020, 2339-2346 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

ENHANCING LEARNING OUTCOMES OF SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATES: THE BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE PARADIGM DR. OLU-AJAYI, FUNMILAYO ELIZABETH Faculty of Education, Department of Science Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria ABSTRACT The study investigated the effects of brainstorming in enhancing the learning outcomes of Science undergraduates in the Faculty of Education of Ekiti State University, Nigeria. Brainstorming could be an educating technique whereby ideas are generated from a group of people in an attempt to solve a problem.It could be incorporated into discussion method of science teaching. The study employed a quasi-experimental design of pretest posttest treatment and control group system. The sample size was120 undergraduates of science Education in 200level. The instruments used were ‘Science Method Achievement Test’ (SMCAT) and an attitudinal scale titled ‘Attitude TowardScience Method Course’ (ATSMC)which elicited information on the undergraduates’performance and attitude towards science method course (EDU 200). The two instruments were validated and tested for reliability withKuder-Richadson formula and adjudgedto be reliable, considering its values of0.84 and 0.86. It was discovered from the study that Brainstorming promotes Brainstorming in science teachereducation.

KEYWORDS: Learning Outcome, Science under Graduates & Brainstorming Technique

Received: May 23, 2020; Accepted: Jun 13, 2020; Published: Jul 04, 2020; Paper Id.: IJMPERDJUN2020217

Original Article

undergraduates learning outcomes in science method courses. The researcher thus recommends the use of

INTRODUCTION The present era of technological advancement driven by science and technology, necessitates the impacts of science and technology on every facet of lives in every nation. The relevance and globalization of science has prompt every country to pay more attention to science education with the aim of training her citizenry to acquire the needed knowledge to enable them contribute meaningfully to the scientific and technological development of their nation (Coştu, Ayas, Çalick, Ünal and Karatas, 2005). To achieve this, it is imperative to introduce innovative ideas that will improve the teaching and learning of science in institutions of learning. The best teachers are those who show learners where to look, but don’t tell them what to see, the use of graphic and other mind mapping and brain mapping innovative tools could help learners imagination to strive and grow. The constructivist approach to teaching believe that meaningful learning and knowledge building could be achieved through two means; 1.internal (cognitive) process, where learner derive new knowledge from previous knowledge and interaction between the learners’ internal and external processes. Here new knowledge is constructed as a consequence of the relationship or interaction between cognitive experience or prior knowledge and 2.the external (i.e. environmental or social) factors. The external or social factor here can be in the form of social interactions with knowledgeable adults or peers.

Brainstorming is a group activity that generates as many ideas as possible on a specific issue or problem, then decides which idea(s) offers the best solution. It involves creative thinking by members of the group of new

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ideas to address an issue or problem. Brainstorming could be a strategy used by a teacher in which many or all students participate by responding or presenting views on one topic. The technique encourages new ideas among students which would never have happened under normal circumstance. Brainstorming is one of the strategies which could be used to produce ideas without inhibition. As such could be addressed as having innovative qualitiesZeitoun (2007) which could be employed in science teaching and learning. Prior to starting a new topic or concept, a brainstorming session may help provide teacher with information on what the students may or may not have known. Brainstormingcould be a large or small group activity that encourages students to focus on a topic and contribute to the free flow of ideas. Being a constructivist technique,it is a development on the conventional teaching method which may lead a group to developlimited and unimaginative ideas.It could be a very good teaching strategyto generate ideas on a given topic. Brainstorming could enhance thinking skill in learners. Student stretch their thinking skills while thinking of things relating to a particular concept, of which many students will admit ignorance of. Nevertheless, with the use of brainstorming even students with special needs can say whatever comes to the mind as relate to the topic as there is no one specific right answer. By contrast, brainstorming provides a free and open environment that encourages everybody to participate. Ideas are welcomed and built upon, and all participants are encouraged to contribute fully, helping them develop a rich array of creative solutions.

Because brainstorming is a child centered approach, it makeslearning interesting andimproves team work in members as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment. Brainstorming improves critical thinking and problem solving skills of individual and a team. It encourages collaboration on more than just major project.The teacher may begin a brainstorming session by posing a question or a problem or by introducing a topic. Then students express possible answers, relevant words and ideas.

Inasmuch as brainstorming can be effective, it's important to approach it with an open mind and a spirit of nonjudgment. Brainstorming technique involves oral and pre-writing exercises for helping the learner and for expressing ideas by the teacher.Osborn (1963) defined Brainstorming as a technique of generating ideas from a group of people in an attempt to solve a problem. Brainstorming could be incorporated into discussion method of science teaching. With reference to Osborn in Orji and Ekpo (2013) who suggestedsome guideliness for effective brainstorming, these are; (i). that there should not be criticism of ideas till end of the brainstorming session, (ii). ideas should be encouraged in large quantity, the more idea generated by participants in the group, the better the chance of coming up with good result (iii) Participants should build on each other’s ideas, while promoting freedom of interaction, combination and elaboration of ideas should be encouraged. (iv). Encouragement should be given to every idea (silly or intelligent), brainstorming can be viewed as a technique in which an individual or a group engages in critical thinking to generate wide-ranging ideas toward solving a problem.

This strategy is now widely research upon in various fields of human endeavor including education; Al-maghrawy (2012) defines brainstorming as a creativity forum for general ideas by a group of people. With regard to brainstorming and academic performance, studies; Ashammari (2015);Hashempour, Rostampour and Behjat (2015);Al-blwi (2006);Alharbi(2002));Rizi, Najafipour, Haghani and Dehghan (2013); Al-Olimat (2008) andKeshwan, (2014)highlighted the relevance of brainstorming in promoting the learning of school subjects, creative thinking and critical thinking as well as academic achievements. For example, Mohammad (2016) applied a quasi-experimental (pretest-posttest) approach to study the effect of brainstorming strategy in Balqi Applied University’s students’ achievement in the course ‘E 101’ using a randomly selected sample of 68 students distributed into two groups viz: experimental group, n= 34 and control group, n=34. The experimental group received instructions through brainstorming strategy while the control group did not. And Impact Factor (JCC): 8.8746

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by measuring the participants’ achievement through the administration of achievement exam, results of the study showed a significant difference in students’ achievement between the two groups in favour of the experimental group taught via brainstorming strategy. Brainstorming can help generate radical solutions to problems, it can also encourage people to be committed toagreed solutions, because they have provided input and played a role in developing them.

A major advantage of brainstorming is in the activation of learners' prior knowledge. Feather (2004) explained that "brainstorming enhances the activation of the learner's schema by providing enough materials for making prediction" It was believed by Sodouh(2013) that prior knowledge activation through brainstorming enhances learners'attitude towards participation in mathematics similarly, Rao (2007) discovered that students exposed to brainstorming techniques regularly for a period of over twelve-month, showed students' complacency about the effectiveness of the brainstorming techniques and produced significantly higher results in writing tasks.

It was discovered byMiri, David and Uri (2007) that through brainstorming, the critical thinking skills of the learner can improve thus developing the students' cognitive toolkit as he considers a topic from different angles, taking into consideration the perspectives of his course-mates, which entails broader range of ideas facilitating creative thinking.

Brainstorming has a great importance in the teaching process, Alsalamat and Kharabsha (2010) explained the benefits of brainstorming to include; helping students develop ideas from others’ contributions to build on, and helping to build relationships among student for ease access to views of others. Brainstorming can also be of relevance to teachers, according to Humaidan in TayyabaZarif (2013) teachers are democratic in making conclusions on ideas that are broader than students' thinking solutions by considering a point from students many points of view.However, brainstorming as opined by Jansen (2016) could be a flawed process if not approach in a structured way. According to Watson(2019) Brainstorming is an excellent strategy to use in interactive classroom to tap into previous knowledge of learners, to give all students opportunities to express their ideas, eliminate fear of failure in students, make studentsshow respect for each other, encouraging discussion participation without fear, tapping individual creativity ability and eliminating the fear of risktaking.In a bid to doing these, there are basic rules as suggested by Watson (2019) for effective brainstorming; No wrong answer, welcome many ideas, record all ideas, don’t evaluate any suggested idea. It is thus thought that brainstorming could be relevant in effecting the.performances and attitude towards subjects in students Problem of the Study Observably, undergraduates in science education engage much time in their courses and practical activities in the cognateScience Faculty. This impinge on their learning outcome in science teaching method course domiciled in Faculty of Education which is the main course that prepares undergraduate Education students for field work, that is, teaching proper.

For better understanding and time management, lecture method of teaching alone may be inefficient to prepare undergraduate science students for field experience,it is thought by the researcher that there is the need to engage students in a student centered teaching techniques will be timemanaging as well adequately prepare them to be efficient on the field.

Purpose of the Study The study aim at investigating the effect of brainstorming on the learning outcome of science undergraduates in Teaching Method course (EDU 200). The study intends doing this by 

Investigating the performance of undergraduate in pretest, before treatment and in posttest, after treatment.



Investigating the attitude towards science method course in science undergraduates in pretest, before treatment t

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and in posttest, after treatment Hypotheses 

There is no significant difference in the performance of undergraduate science education students exposed to brainstorming and those not.



There is no significant difference in the attitude of undergraduate science education students exposed to brainstorming and those not.

METHODOLOGY Quasi-experimental design of pretest, posttest, control and experimental group system was employed. The population for the study was made up of all Science Education Undergraduates of Ekiti State University.Sample was120 undergraduates selected through multistage sampling procedure involving purposive and simple random sampling. In stage one, 200 level students were purposefully selected from the total science education undergraduates for the study. Stage two later involved a random selection of 120 students from the 200level science education undergraduates.

Instrument Two self-constructed instruments were used in this study: 

Science Method Course Achievement Test (SMCAT) to determine the initial performance of sample in pretest.

And was administered as posttest to the sample selected for the study to determine the effect of treatment. The test consists of instructions for answering and thirty (30) multiple questions on science teaching methods.



Attitude towards Science Method Course (ATSMC) an attitudinal scale, which was used to measure the students’ attitude towards Science Teaching Method Course (EDU 200). The instrument consists of two (2) sections; Thebiodatawhich sought information on the identity of the respondent and items on respondents’ attitude towards science teaching method course. ‘Brainstorming’ wasemployed as treatment in the study. And was used as a teaching strategy to discuss ‘Various Science Teaching Methods’ The validity of the instruments were ensured by experts in Science Education and reliability coefficients of 0.84 and 0.86 were established from responses of undergraduate students who are not part of the sample using the test retest method and measured through KuderRichardson (KR 20) formula. This was adjudged high enough to be reliable.

Experimental Procedure involved three stages: 

- Pretest stage where the homogeneity of the sample was determined by administering SMCAT and ATSMC to them. The scores on the initial performance and initial attitude of sample were recorded after the administering of these instruments.



- Treatment stage involved the introduction and use of Brainstorming teaching strategy to teach the experimental group alone for 4 weeks

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- Posttest stage involved the administration of SMCAT and ATSMC to both the experimental and control group

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The results of the pretest and posttest were then analyzed using inferential statistics.

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The result from the study is presented below Table 1: ANCOVA showing Undergraduates Science Education Students’ Performance by treatment Source Corrected Model Covariate (Pretest) Group Error Corrected Total Total * p<0.05

SS 9963.530 9548.883 473.122 432.436 10395.967 379804.000

Df 2 1 1 117 119 120

MS 4981.765 9548.883 473.122 3.696

F 1347.866 2583.546 128.008*

P .000 .000 .000

The result in Table 1 reveals that there is significant difference in the performance of Science Education UndergraduatesStudents exposed to Brainstorming and those not. (F1,117=128.008, p<0.05). The null hypothesis is rejected.

Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) showing the effect of treatment on Science Education Undergraduate Students’ performance is presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) of Undergraduate Science Education Students’ performance by Treatment Grand Mean = 55.48 Variable + Category Brainstorming Control Multiple R Multiple R2

N 61 59

Unadjusted Devn’ 1.83 -1.89

Eta2 .96

Adjusted for Independent + Covariate 1.96 -2.01

Beta .95 .955 .913

Table 2 shows thatScience Education Undergraduates exposed to brainstorming had higher adjusted mean score of 57.48 (55.52+ 1.96) on performance than those not; 53.51(55.52+(-2.01). This implies that the use of brainstorming will enhance the performance of Science Education Students. The treatment accounted for about 96% (Eta2=0.958) of the observed variance in undergraduate science education students’ performance.

Table 3: ANCOVA showing Science Undergraduates’ Attitude Towards Teaching Method Course by Treatment Source SS Df MS F P Corrected Model 13443.883 2 6721.941 215.823 .000 Covariate (pretest) .373 1 .373 .012 .913 Group 13188.681 1 13188.681 423.452* .000 Error 3644.042 117 31.146 Corrected Total 17087.925 119 Total 387051.000 120 * p<0.05 Table 3 shows that there is significant difference in the attitude towards Science Teaching Method Course ofScience Education Undergraduates Students exposed to Brainstorming and those not (F1,117=423.452, p<0.05). The null hypothesis is rejected. Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) showing the effect of treatment on Science undergraduates’ attitude towards Teaching Method Course by treatment is presented in Table 4.

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Table 4: Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) of science Undergraduates Attitude Towards Teaching Method Course by Treatment Grand Mean = 55.52 Variable + N Unadjusted Eta2 Adjusted for Independent Beta Category Devn’ + Covariate Brainstorming 61 10.41 10.89 .79 .12 Control 59 -10.76 -10.26 Multiple R Multiple R2

.122 .015

Table 4 shows that Science Education Undergraduates exposed to Brainstorming had higher adjusted mean score of 66.41 (55.52+10.89) on attitude towards science teaching method course than those not; 45.26(55.52+(-10.26). This implies that the use of Brainstorming will enhance the Science Education Undergraduates’ attitude towards Science Teaching Method Course. The treatment accounted for about 79% (Eta2=0.787) of the observed variance in science education undergraduates’ attitude towards science teaching method course.

DISCUSSIONS It was discovered from the study that there was a significant difference in the performance and attitude of Science Education Undergraduates exposed to Brainstorming and those not. Science Education Undergraduates exposed to brainstorming had higher adjusted mean score on performance and attitude towards science teaching method course than those not.This may be attributed to the nature of brainstorming strategy believed by Darayseh (2003) and Al-Olimat (2008) as a collective discussion strategy that encourage students to generate the highest number of ideas that are varied and creative in a spontaneous and free environment. This is consistence with the submissions of Al-bwli, (2006) and Almaghrawy (2012) who, asserted, that brainstorming is an open discussion that motivate the brainto launch ideas towards a particular topic and does not limit the freedom of participants. This can affect the performance and attitude of students in classas it will provide an undergraduate teacher with various means of teaching a particular topic to impact learning, and meet the stated objectives of lesson as indicated in the lesson plan.Nevertheless this result contradicts the results of Hashempour, Rostampour and Behjat (2015) who recorded a non-significant relationship between brainstorming and students performance in writing. The findings of this study were also in line with the discovery of Rao (2007) who asserted that brainstorming could arouse the thinking process of the learner and aid in the creation and arrangement students’ thoughts in a reasonable manner.

CONCLUSIONS It was concluded from the study that Brainstorming is an effective instructional strategy forenhancing students’ learning outcomes in undergraduate science method course, as it gives room for equal participation of undergraduates involved, thus a useful teaching strategy in undergraduate teacher education.

RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings of the study the researcher thus 

Recommends brainstorming as an effective teaching strategy in science teacher education.



Encourage the use brainstorming strategy by teacher educators.

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

Recommends the Conducting of more studies on use of Brainstorming in other learning variables.



Encourage researches on the use of Brainstorming strategy on other samples indifferent learning environments.

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Dr. Olu-Ajayi, Funmilayo Elizabeth achievement of students in grade five in Tehran elementary schools. Social and Behavioural Sciences1(83) 230-233.

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