Effect of Conceptual-Change Instruction on Performance in Chemical Equations among Secondary School Students in Giwa Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of Conceptual-Change Instructional Strategy on Performance in Chemical Equations among secondary school students in Giwa Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The population comprised of 4,401 SS II Chemistry students, and sample of 98 students from two public coeducation senior secondary schools were selected from the 18 senior secondary schools in Giwa Education Zone. The study adopted the pre-test, post-test quasi experimental and control group design. The students in Experimental group were taught the concept of Writing and Balancing Chemical Equations using Conceptual-Change Instructional Strategy while those in Control group were taught the same concept using Conventional method for the period of six weeks. The Instrument used for data collection was Chemical Equations Performance Test (CEPT) with reliability coefficients of 0.81 and 0.75 respectively. Two Objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested to guide the study. Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney (U-test) statistical tools were used to test the null hypotheses at p < 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that there was statistically significant difference between the mean performance scores of students in experimental and control groups in favour of the experimental group; the findings also revealed that there is no statistically significant difference between the male students and the female students in the experimental group. It was therefore recommended among others, that senior secondary school Chemistry teachers should endeavour to use the Conceptual-Change Instructional Strategy while teaching Writing and Balancing Chemical Equations (WBCE), in order to improve students’ Academic Performance in the Concept.