Effects of school location on students’ learning outcomes in practical physics

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of school location on students‘ learning outcomes in practical physics. A pretest, posttest, control group, quasi experimental design was used. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels for each of the three dependent variables. The sample consisted of 526 Senior Secondary School II physics students drawn from eight co-educational schools in Ibadan. Simple random sampling was used to select four local government areas (LGAs) from Ibadan city and four local government areas from Ibadan less city. Purposive sampling was used to select a school from each of the eight selected LGAs. An intact SSII science class in each selected school was picked at random. Four valid and reliable instruments were used to collect the data. Analysis of covariance and Scheffe Post Hoc were used for data analysis. Results showed that school location had a significant main effect on students‘ cognitive attainment [F _(1,526) =50.60; P <0.05]; performance in practical skills [F _(1,526) = 16.62; P <0.05]; but there was no significant main effect on attitude. Physics teachers are advised to make genuine effort to encourage students in less city schools. Educational stakeholders should encourage teachers and students in rural schools by making available the infrastructures, equipments, materials, etcetera (that are in city schools) in less city schools.