Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of hands-on activity on students’
skill performance and attitude towards chemistry. The action research design was
adopted with an intervention covering four weeks. The study sought answers to these
research questions: 1. What is the attitude of students toward chemistry before and
after the use of hands-on activity? 2.What is the effect of hands-on activity on the
levels of skill performance among students in chemistry? 3.What is the effect of
hands-on activity on the retention ability of students in chemistry? Thirty-four
chemistry students from Bisease Senior High School, Central Region – Ghana were
purposively selected as the sample for this study. Chemistry Achievement Tests, CAT
and questionnaire were the instruments used to collect data for analysis. Data were
collected from students who participated in this study both before and after the
intervention. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The
findings of the research revealed that students exhibited more positive attitudes
toward teaching and learning of chemistry after hands-on instructional approach was
used. Also, the findings revealed that students exhibited improvement in science
process skills when hands-on approach was used to teach chemistry – the mean score
obtained on the pre-intervention test was 9.71 compared to 20.41 on the postintervention
test. The t-test conducted showed the difference to be statistically
significant (p = 0.00, sig. at 0.05). additionally, a large effect size (Ɵ = 1.78) indicated
that the difference between the pre-test mean and the post-test mean is significant in
practical scenarios. Further, the findings revealed that the performance of the students
on the post-intervention test and the retention test, conducted two weeks after the
intervention did not differ significantly (p = 0.31. not sig. at 0.05). However, students’
performance on both the post-intervention test and the retention test were significantly
different from the pre-intervention test as revealed by a post hoc test. Based on these
findings, it was recommended that teacher training institutions such as colleges and
universities should emphasise hands-on activity instructional methods as part of their
chemistry training curriculum. Chemistry teacher trainees should be subjected to
external assessment on the use of hands-on activity instructional methods during their
teaching internship programme. Also, the Ministry of Education, through the
Ajumako Essiam Enyan District Education Directorate, should allocate more time for
in-service training of chemistry teachers on the integration of hands-on activity to
empower them, thus, enabling its application in the classroom.
Description:
A Dissertation in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy (Science Education) in the University of Education, Winneba
JANUARY, 2023