Two-Method Indoor Laboratory Instruction: How Effective Is It on Secondary School Students’ Performance in Physics?

Abstract

This study probed the effectiveness of two-method indoor laboratory instruction on secondary school students’ performance in physics in Jos Metropolis, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental research design of the non-equivalent control group pre-test, post-test type was employed. The population for the study comprised 1,112 senior secondary two students offering physics in 18 schools in Jos metropolis, with the schools purposively obtained. The study sample consisted of 80 SSS II students obtained from two intact classes, one class each from two schools selected using simple random sampling technique. Two research questions were raised and two hypotheses were formulated. Physics Performance Test (PPT) was the instrument validated and used to gather data. The test-retest method was used to obtain the reliability of PPT and its coefficient was computed as 0.73 using Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (K-R 21). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while independent t-test of difference and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were the statistical tools used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The results revealed that students taught concepts of simple harmonic motion and elasticity using group indoor laboratory method performed better than their counterparts taught using individual indoor laboratory method; although male students performed slightly higher than their female counterparts after exposure to the two methods, gender was found to have no interaction effect on their performance; there was a significant interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ performance in the study area, with the methods as source of interaction effect. Based on the findings, recommendations were made, which include that curriculum developers should ensure that laboratory teaching methods are included in physics curriculum in order to enhance students’ performance in the subject.