Effectiveness of Practical Work in Physics on Academic Performance among Learners at the selected secondary school in Rwanda

Abstract

The current study investigates the effectiveness of practical work in physics on academic performance among learners of a secondary school in Rwanda. The study employs a quasi-experimental research design specifically pretest-posttest control group design (control group and experimental group). Two groups of learners of senior one at Groupe Scholaire Rugoma were treated differently through an expository and practice-based approach respectively. Physics achievement test prepared to evaluate the effect of practical work indicated that learners in the experimental group outperformed those of the control group treated by the expository teaching method. Various factors that may advance or hinder the implementation of practical work were identified and views from science teachers were collected. Most of the respondents strongly agreed that those factors have a significant impact on the implementation of practical work which in turn influence learners’ overall academic performance during Physics Achievement Test (PAT). A significant difference was observed from the statistical analysis performed by using SPSS version 21.0. (Pretest and posttest among learners in the experimental group; t = 27.243; 32.743; MD = 8.4239; 13.12500 respectively whereas the pretest and posttest among learners are as follow, t = 28.442; 32.627; MD = 9.82500; 2.38005 respectively and for all performance evaluation hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. Based on the observed results, it was found that practical work was more effective in improving learners’ performance in Physics. It was therefore concluded that practical work continues to be a promising approach in teaching sciences, particularly teaching Physics in secondary schools.

Enhancing Science Process Skills and Academic Performance in Biology: The Impact of Practical Work

“…Nowadays, the forerunner of teaching and learning science concepts is practice-based education. Studies have shown that this mode of instructional delivery equips students with practical skills through learning by doing, which promotes their knowledge, skill acquisition and performance [1], [2]. As such, Ministry of Education included practical work to Ghana's senior high school biology curriculum.…”

“…The preliminary observations by the researchers and WAEC reports suggest a significant gap between the ideal conditions required for effective practical work and the current practices in the school. The observed challenges point to deficiencies in the implementation of practical work sessions, where students may not be adequately guided through these crucial components of the curriculum [1], [6], [7]. The urgency of addressing this issue lies in the increasing number of students performing inadequately in biology.…”

“…Notably, Kusuma and Rusmansyah's study [7] highlighted that those students who lacked exposure to wellstructured practical sessions demonstrated lower proficiency in applying science process skills during assessments. Furthermore, the works of Twahirwa et al [1], Nwuba et al, [4] and Dagnew & Sitotaw [13] highlight the positive impact of practical work on the acquisition of science process skills and subsequent academic performance. The findings revealed a statistically significant improvement in both skill acquisition and academic scores when practical work was effectively integrated into the curriculum.…”

“…Considering the above, it is necessary to explore the effects of practical work on students' performance, focusing on selected topics in Biology. However, sufficient study has not been done on the effectiveness of a practiced-based approach on learners in different academic environments [1]. Hence, further investigation is required to better understand the relationship between practical work and students' science process skills acquisition and academic performance in biology.…”