Abstract:
This study investigated the use of cooperative learning strategy towards effective teaching
and learning of chemical bonding. The action research approach and case study research
design were used. The accessible population was 72 students was the sample 26 students
comprising all form two science students at Boso Senior high technical school. A pre-test
was administered to all the students followed by interviews to know their prior conceptions,
misconceptions, and causes of their misconceptions on chemical bonding. After that, the
cooperative learning strategy was used as an intervention to solve the problems the students
had on the topic followed by administration of post-test to all the students. Paired sample
t-test was used to analyze the pre-test and the post-test to find out whether there was a
significant difference in students’ academic performance. From the paired sample t-test it
was found that the t-statistics (14.748) was greater than the t-critical (2.060) which means
there was a statistically significant difference in students’ academic performance. This
shows that students performed better in the post-test as compared to the pre-test and the
cooperative learning strategy had a greater effect on the students. After that, the results
from the post-test were grouped into males and females and an unpaired sample t-test was
used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the
performance of males and females when the intervention was employed. From the unpaired
sample t-test, t-statistics (1.207) was less than t-critical (2.064), which means there was no
statistically significant difference. It is therefore recommended that teachers should use a
cooperative learning strategy to effectively teach chemical bonding, which will help
eliminate misconceptions, improve the understanding of students and establish gender
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Chemistry
Education, Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Chemistry Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
OCTOBER, 2023