Relative Effects of Two Activity-Based Instructional Strategies on Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Physics Practical

Abstract

The study investigated the relative effects of two activity-based instructional strategies on students’ attitude towards Physics practical in secondary schools. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design of pre-test, post-test and control group. The sample for the study comprised 74 Senior Secondary two (SS II) Physics students who were randomly selected through multistage technique from three co-educational senior secondary schools in Osun state, Nigeria. The schools were randomly selected to two experimental and a control group. The experimental groups were exposed to predict-observe-explain and virtual laboratory instructional strategies while the control group was taught using conventional laboratory strategy. Physics Practical Attitude Scale (PPAS) was the instrument used to collect relevant data for the study. The general question raised for the study was answered using descriptive statistics. The hypotheses generated were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Scheffe Posthoc Analysis and Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA). Decisions were taken at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study showed that the treatment had positive effects on students’ attitude towards Physics practical. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Physics teachers should make use of predict-observe-explain and virtual laboratory instructional strategies to improve students’ attitude towards Physics practical in secondary schools.