EFFECTS OF LABORATORY PRACTICAL WORK, DEMONSTRATION METHOD AND LEARNING STYLES ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN CHEMISTRY
ABSTRACT
The study determined the effect of laboratory practical work and demonstration method on secondary school students’ achievement and interest in chemistry in Nsukka Local Government of Enugu State. Six research questions were posed and answered while six null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Non-equivalent control group quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study. The study was done in Nsukka L.G.A of Enugu State. The population of study comprised all the 409 SS I students in all the public secondary schools in Nsukka L.G.A. A sample of 160 SS I students in secondary schools within the L.G.A was used for the study. Grasha-Reichmann questionnaire for classifying students into various learning styles, Chemistry Achievement Test and chemistry interest inventory were used as instruments for data collection. The instruments were properly validated and the reliability indices estimated as 0.876 for CAT and 0.851 for CIIS. Data collected were analyzed using Mean, Standard deviation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that; laboratory practical work is significantly more effective than the demonstration method of teaching is enhancing students’ achievement as well as interest in chemistry;Learning styles significantly influence the achievement and interest of students in chemistry with the collaborative learners achieving and having more interest in chemistry than the other students with other learning styles followed by the students who are participant learners. One of the implications of the findings is that when students are taught chemistry with laboratory practical work, they are bound to perform better than when taught with demonstration. Thus, it was recommended among others that senior secondary school teachers should be encouraged to adopt laboratory practical work during teaching of chemistry since its efficacy had been proven.
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