Effects Of Computer Based Cooperative Mastery Learning On Secondary School Students’ Skills Acquisition, Motivation And Achievement In Chemistry Practicals In Bomet County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Chemistry occupies a central position among science subjects in the secondary school

curriculum. It also takes up a significant place in the curriculum because of its applications in

everyday life and the role it plays in enabling students to develop affective intellectual, and

practical skills. In spite of this increasing importance in the unfolding world, the academic

performance of Kenyan students in the subject in secondary schools has remained poor over

the years. The fundamental challenge facing the teaching of Chemistry in Kenyan secondary

schools is how to enhance students’ Skills Acquisition, Conceptual understanding and

Affective characteristics associated with the teaching and learning process. Innovative,

research-based, and learner-centred teaching methods engage the learners in the learning

process. Such methods are not only effective for mastery of concepts but also promote

Psychomotor, Cognitive, and Affective characteristics of learners. The present study focused

on the use of Computer Based Cooperative Mastery Learning (CBCML) in enhancing students’

Skills Acquisition, Motivation and Achievement in chemistry in Bomet County. The study was

guided by cognitive constructivist theory advanced by Ausubel and social constructivist theory

advanced by Vygotsky. The target population for the study was all students in secondary

schools in Bomet County. However, the accessible population was form three students in all

co-educational secondary schools in the County. The study used Solomon Four Non-equivalent

Control Group Design. Four secondary schools were purposively sampled from the accessible

population. Stratified random sampling was used to select one school from each of the four

sub-counties of Bomet County. This ensured that the four schools were located far apart from

one another to eliminate diffusion of information from the experimental groups to the control

groups. This translated to a total of 238 students. The selected schools were randomly assigned

to treatment and control conditions. Students in all the four groups were taught the same

Chemistry content from the topic Volumetric Analysis. In the Experimental Groups, CBCML

was used while Conventional Teaching Methods (CTM) were used in the Control Groups.

Groups 1 and 2 were pre-tested prior to the implementation of CBCML treatment which lasted

a period of six weeks. At the end of the treatment, all the four groups were post-tested using

Chemistry Practical Skills Acquisition Test (CPSAT), Students’ Motivation Questionnaire

(SMQ) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). The instruments were validated with the help

of experts from the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Management of

Egerton University and Examiners of Chemistry registered with Kenya National Examinations

Council (KNEC). The three instruments were pilot-tested to estimate their reliability

coefficient before they were used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the SMQ

was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient while that of CPSAT and CAT were

estimated using Kuder-Richardson (K-R21) formula. The reliability coefficients were found to

be 0.76, 0.88, and 0.85 for CPSAT, SMQ and CAT respectively. The instruments were

therefore suitable for use in the study because the minimum threshold of 0.70 was met. Data

were coded and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.

Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were employed in data analysis. These statistics

included the mean, t-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA. The findings of the study showed that

CBCML has a positive significant effect on students’ Skills Acquisition, Motivation, and

Achievement in Chemistry when it is used in teaching Chemistry. Moreover, gender has no

significant effect on students’ skills acquisition, motivation and achievement in chemistry

when CBCML is used to teach. The results of this study may be beneficial to Chemistry

teachers, teacher trainers and curriculum developers in improving the teaching-learning

process. Consequently, the level of skills acquisition, motivation and achievement in Chemistry

is enhanced. The findings also form a frame of reference for further research on innovative

teaching strategies that ensure active participation of learners during the teaching/learning process in Chemistry as well as other science subjects.