A Replication Study of the Effects of Guided Versus Minimally Guided Classroom Engagement on Academic Achievement in Physics

This study presents a comparative analysis of classroom engagement effects on the academic achievement of senior secondary school physics students, focusing on the replication of prior research and contrasting the impacts of guided and minimally guided constructivist instructional approaches. Drawing on established frameworks of inquiry-based instruction, particularly Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGIS) and Cubing Instruction (CIS), the research investigates their relative efficacy in enhancing student learning outcomes. The clustered quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design, involving the Cognitively Guided Instructional Strategy (CGIS) and the Cubing Instructional Strategy (CIS), was adopted by the study. The intact classroom groups of schools purposively selected participated in the study. An achievement test was administered before and after instruction, and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t-tests were used to determine the effects of the intervention while controlling for baseline achievement and mathematical ability. The findings show that the treatment had a significant effect on the students’ achievement (p = 0.030). The t-test result demonstrated that students exposed to the CGIS recorded higher posttest mean scores than those in the CIS group. These outcomes suggests that guided inquiry may offer pedagogical advantages in supporting classroom and conceptual learning. However, the evidence should be cautiously interpreted. The study contributes to the literature as a conceptual replication by providing evidence regarding the effects of guided and minimally guided constructivist approaches in a different instructional setting. The outcomes underscore the importance of balancing instructional guidance and learner autonomy in physics classrooms, as well as the need for further research involving larger samples and diverse contexts to strengthen causal inference.