Enhancing the academic performance of archbishop porter girls’ senior high school students using laboratory based practical activities in selected chemistry topics

Abstract

The study was designed to enhance the students’ academic performance in solubility and enthalpy change as topics in chemistry through the use of laboratory- based practical activities. The following were the objectives of the study: to determine students’ pre-conceptions on solubility and enthalpy change before the practical activities, to evaluate the effect of the use of practical activities on students’ performance on studying solubility and enthalpy change and to determine students’ perceptions of the use of laboratory practical activities in learning the selected topics in chemistry. It was an intact - class action research. Form two (2) thirty students (30) in Archbishop Porter Girls’ Senior High School, were purposively sampled for the study. The instrument used for the data collection for the study were pre-intervention test and post-intervention test, and questionnaire for students. Data collected were analysed by applying t-test, mean, standard deviation and percentages using statistical package for social Science (SPSS) version 19.0. The findings revealed that laboratory activity- based methods of teaching and learning engaged students actively in the learning process, promoted open- mindedness, helped students acquire skills, aided better interaction among students and promoted positive perception towards chemistry. It was recommended that chemistry teachers take students through a lot of practical activities. This will help them gain better understanding of different concepts to improve their academic performance.