Teaching Chemistry in Secondary Schools: A Case for Cooperative Instructional Strategy

Abstract

The study investigated the relative effectiveness of cooperative instructional strategy on students' performance in secondary school chemistry. Two hundred and fifty (250) Senior Secondary two (SS II) chemistry students were purposively sampled from three public secondary schools in Ilesa Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Two research instruments: Researcher's Instructional Packages for solving Chemistry Problems (RIP) and Chemistry Performance Test (CPT) were developed, validated and used for the study. The reliability of the Chemistry Performance Test (CPT) was determined and found to be 0.62 using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation formula. Three hypotheses were raised and tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The study covered a period of six (6) weeks. The experimental group, which is Cooperative instructional group and a Control group, were used. The results of the analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the performance of chemistry students exposed to cooperative instructional strategy and conventional teaching method. The cooperative instructional strategy was found to be more effective in enhancing better performance of the learners. Some recommendations were also made.

Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences Vol. 3 (2) 2008: pp. 27-34