Effects of science process skills mastery learning approach on secondary school students’ achievement and acquisition of selected chemistry practical skills in Koibatek District schools, Kenya

Abstract

Chemistry is one of the science subjects which are taught in Kenyan secondary schools. One of the objectives for teaching chemistry is to enable learners to use knowledge and skills acquired to solve problems in everyday life. Achievement of this objective depends on the methods and techniques employed by teachers during instruction. The method used can either enhance or hamper the learner’s interest in the subject and hence affect the overall performance of school learning. The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) reports that secondary school students’ performance in chemistry practical papers is poor and this affects their overall achievement in Chemistry. Poor achievement in chemistry may be a result of the methods teachers use. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of Science Process Skills Mastery Learning Approach (SPROSMALEA) on students’ achievement and acquisition of selected science processes skills. The study was carried out in Koibatek District, Kenya, where a persistent low achievement in the subject has been registered. The study focused on the topic “salts” in Form Two chemistry syllabus. The Solomon Four Group, Non-equivalent Control Group Design was employed in the study. Four co-educational schools were purposively selected from the 35 secondary schools in the District and randomly assigned to serve as experimental group (E1), experimental group (E2) control group (C1) and control group (C2). Data were collected from a sample of 160 Form Two students. Three instruments namely, Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT), Science Process Skills Performance Test (SPSPT) and Classroom Observation Schedule (COS) were used for data collection. The instruments were pilot tested in two secondary schools in Koibatek District which were not part of the study but had similar characteristics as the sampled schools. This was to ascertain their suitability, establish its validity and reliability. Two groups, the experimental (E1) and control group (C1) were pre-tested, experimental group (E2) and second control group (C2) were not. All groups were taught the same course content for a period of four weeks, with the experimental groups receiving their instruction by use of (SPROSMALEA) approach and control groups using the conventional teaching method. During the teaching COS was used to observe and record the activities of the teachers and learners. A post-test on CAT and SPSPT was administered to all groups after the completion of instruction on the chemistry topic on salts. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0 for Windows. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to analyse differences in the four means of post-test scores. A t-test was used to get the differences between two means. Hypotheses of the study were tested at =0.05 level of significance. The results of the study indicate that students in the experimental groups outperformed the control groups in the achievement and the acquisition of selected chemistry practical skills. The findings further indicate that students’ and teachers’ activities during the instruction in the experimental groups had higher mean frequencies in COS than in the control groups. Science teachers, educators and policy makers are likely to benefit from the results and recommendations of the study in that it provides them with an alternative teaching approach which is capable of improving their achievement in the subject and acquisition of the desired practical skills.