Effects of constructivist teaching strategy on students’ achievement and motivation to learn chemistry in secondary schools in Nandi North District, Kenya

Abstract

Chemistry is a major career subject in secondary education that is done by most of the secondary school students in Nandi North District. However, the subject has been underperformed in the past years. This could be attributed to inappropriate teaching methods employed in teaching and learning. Constructivist teaching strategy may help in improving teaching and learning of scientific concepts, but this had not been established in the District. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of using constructivist teaching strategy on students’ achievement and motivation to learn Chemistry. Solomon-Four Group Non-Equivalent Control Group Design was used. Four co-educational schools were chosen using simple random sampling out of the thirty two schools in the district. One hundred and twenty students and four teachers were involved in the study. Two instruments that were used are Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Students’ Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ). A teaching module was developed for teaching the topic: ‘Effects of Electric Current on substances’ in Form Two for eleven lessons in a period of two weeks. Piloting was done in a different school within Nandi North District to ascertain the reliability and validity of the instruments. Validation of the instruments was ascertained by three experts from department of Curriculum Instruction and Educational Management (CIEM). The Cronbach’s co-efficient alpha and Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (KR- 21) were used for establishing reliability of SMQ and CAT respectively. Reliability was 0.72 for SMQ and 0.74 for CAT. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, ANCOVA, t-test and descriptive statistics. Hypotheses were tested at co-efficient alpha (α) = 0.05 level of significance. Results of the study indicates that constructivist teaching strategy enhances students’ chemistry achievement but had no effect on students motivation. Also the results showed that there was no difference in motivation and achievement in chemistry of boys and girls taught using constructivist strategy. The results of this study are may help in enhancing teaching and learning of chemistry. This method is recommended for teachers of chemistry as a complement for the conventional teaching methods. Teacher trainers can train teachers on constructivist teaching strategy. KEMI can organize seminars workshops and refresher courses for chemistry teachers.