The study investigated constructivist practices through guided discovery approach and the effect on students’ cognitive achievement in Nigerian senior secondary school Physics. The study adopted pretest-posttest control group design. A criterion sampling technique was used to select six schools out of nine schools that met the criteria. A total of 278 students took part in the study; this was made up of 141 male students and 137 female students in their respective intact classes. Physic Achievement Test (PAT) with the internal consistency of 0.77 using Kuder Richardson formula 21 was the instrument used in collecting data. The data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t-test. The results showed that guided discovery approaches was the most effective in facilitating students’ achievement in physics after being taught using a pictorial organizer. This was followed by demonstration while expository was found to be the least effective. Also, there exists no significant difference in the achievement of male and female physics students taught with guided discovery, demonstration and expository teaching approaches and corresponding exposure to a pictorial organizer. It is recommended that physics teachers should endeavour to use constructivist practices through guided discovery approach in order to engage students in problem solving activities, independent learning, critical thinking and understanding, and creative learning, rather than in rote learning and memorization.
The study examined the effect of prior knowledge of instructional objectives on students' achievement in selected difficult concepts in senior secondary school physics. A total of 100 senior secondary two (SS II) physics students were involved in the study. A non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design was used. From the findings, it was determined that students' prior knowledge of instructional objectives facilitates achievement on difficult concepts in physics. Generally, prior knowledge of behavioural objectives was found to be more effective in enhancing students' achievement on difficult concepts than prior knowledge of general objectives. Also, the results showed that male students achieved higher than female students given the same condition of exposure to prior knowledge of instructional objectives of physics difficult concept. Among others, it was recommended that physics teachers should introduce their lesson objectives in behavioural terms before the learning tasks begin at the instance of teaching the concept of electricity in senior secondary school physics.
<p>Physics is an aspect of science that is essential for the scientific development of any nation, but the performance of students in the subject remains a concern for physics educators. Observational learning is one way of enhancing performance. This study investigates the effects of this type of learning as reinforcement to enhance Nigerian students’ performance in physics. The investigation adopted the pre-test post-test randomized control group quasi-experimental design involving 89 senior school students randomly selected from two schools in Ondo, Nigeria. The instrument, the Physics Achievement Test in Energy Quantization (PATEQ), consisting of 19 multiple choice questions, was used to obtain the data. PATEQ was validated by three science education experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was achieved through Kuder-Richardson Formula 21. The experimental and control groups were taught energy quantization using observational and conventional teaching methods respectively. The findings show that observational learning has a significant effect on physics students’ achievement. It is concluded that such learning should be used to reinforce the teaching of physics in order to improve Nigerian students’ grades in the subject.</p>
This study investigated the facilitating effect of models, realia and charts on students' attitude in teaching the concept of heat energy in Nigerian senior secondary school Physics. A total of 183 senior secondary two (SS2) Physics students constituted the sample. This study adopted quasi-experimental design in 4 coeducational secondary schools in Ife South Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Physics Attitude Scale (PAS) was used to collect the data and the coefficient of internal consistency for PAS was 0.85 using Cronbach alpha. The data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance. The results showed that models were the most effective in facilitating students' attitude towards leaning Physics. This was then followed by realia while charts were found to be the least effective in facilitating students' attitude towards Physics learning. The results also showed an insignificant gender difference in the attitude of students towards Physics when taught with models, realia and charts. The results also indicated that the facilitating effect of instructional materials on students' attitude towards Physics is not the same at all levels of gender. It is recommended that charts should be used together with models/realia materials for the main lesson, revision and reference purposes.
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