Effects Of Concept Mapping Combined With Activity-Based Methods As Strategy In Teaching Sound Wave On Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement In Physics

Effects Of Concept Mapping Combined With Activity-Based Methods As Strategy In Teaching Sound Wave On Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement In Physics In Ukanafun Local Government Area Of Akwa Ibom State

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Education is a combination of deliberate and purposeful acts and activities with formative and intervention effects on the behavior and character of an individual. Education can also be seen as a process by which a society consciously transmits its accumulated stock of knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. According to Olarinoye (2011) and Otulca (2016), education is an instrument for economic, political and scientific development of all nations. Education is the process of imparting and acquiring knowledge through teaching and learning, especially at a school or similar institution (Encarta world English dictionary, 2009).

Education is very important for the success of an individual in life. It provides learners with the knowledge and skills that prepares them for the works of life. In fact, through education, the society grows and develops by bringing about the desired societal changes. Therefore, in order that science teaching and learning is made possible at any level of education, the establishment of science education was considered importance. Science education is seen as the field concerned with sharing science content and process with individual not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. Science education plays vital role in the live of individuals and the development of a nation scientifically and technologically (Alebiosu and Ifamuyiwa, 2008). It is widely and generally acknowledged that the gateway to the survival of a nation, scientifically and technologically is scientific literacy which can only be achieved through science education. This is why the National Policy on Education (2008) stipulated that “science education shall emphasize the teaching and learning of science process and principles”. However, physics is one of the science education subjects. Physics is taught in the second stage of secondary education (senior secondary school stage). Secondary school physics serves as a preparation for further training in physics and prepares students to be useful citizens within the society. In order to achieve the objectives of physics education at this level of education, federal government has taken good, consistent and impressive policies and actions regarding science education in general and physics education in particular. Some of such measures include the establishment of special science school, intensified training of physics teachers by including them in the Technical Teachers Training Programme (TTTP); Popularizing the study of science (Physics inclusive) and the production of adequate number of scientists to inspire and support national development. These can be achieved if interactive teaching strategies are considered relevance.

Consequently, it has been observed in recent times that the major challenges in teaching is to create experience that involve the student and support of his own thinking, explanation, evaluation, communication and application of scientific models needed to make sense of these experiences. In science education, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of learner centeredness in the teaching learning process which has generated a lot of attentions in relation to understanding how learners learn and how to help them learn about concepts in sciences. According to Clibum (2009) and Danjuma (2005), these efforts assisting learners to learn more effectively and also lead to the development of meta-cognitive strategies to enhance meaningful learning. According to Novak cited in Agaba (2013), meta-cognitive strategies are meta-knowledge and meta-learning which are strategies that empower a learner to take charge of his/her own learning in meaningful ways. He further explained that meta-knowledge refers to knowledge that deals with the very nature of knowledge and knowing while meta-learning refers to the learning that deals with the nature of learning about meaningful learning.

Similarly, in the era of knowledge explosion and technology revolution, rote learning is no longer acceptable or even successful in creating students who are capable to cope with the great accelerated degree of knowledge. The learners nowadays needs to acquire many skills as interactive skills with people from different background, sharing ideas and thinking skills that help the learners to meet their needs concerning types of knowledge that help them to adapt to life and its different changing aspects which will enhance their learning and achievement. Therefore, the need for appropriate teaching learning strategies in physics teaching.

Interactive engagement is now recognized as an important strategy in teaching and learning of physics. Physics curriculum suggested the guided-discovery method as the best way to teach and learn physics but research reports have shown that lecture method of teaching is still prevalent (Farmobi, 2017). However, educational research has shown that traditional lecturing, in which students listen passively can result in surprisingly little real learning. This portrays physics as a very abstract subject and makes students perceived the study of physics to be difficult and less interesting. According to Hobson (2009), “student in physics learn only how to solve certain standard types of problems without actually learning the physics concepts that are the main point of the subject”. In recent times, the researcher observes that at present, mostly behavioural practices are in vogue in schools in the area where students are passive and classroom environment is mostly teachers dominated. Yet, the National Curriculum 2006 in Cheema and Mirza (2013) stresses for the paradigm shift from the behaviourism to constructivism to enhance conceptual learning in science and development of attitude towards learning of science in general and physics in particular. This curriculum demands such teaching-learning strategies that may involve students in their own knowledge construction, placing them as centre of learning activity and teacher as a facilitator.

It should be noted that despite the effort of science educators such as Bello (2016) and Danjuma (2005) towards finding a suitable instructional strategy for effective teaching in secondary schools. There still exist some reports of poor academic performance in public examinations results such as NECO and WAEC in physics (Lakpini, 2014; Ogbenevwede, 2015; Adebayo, 2017 and WAEC Chief Examiners Report, 2018). The poor performance were attributed to the use of inappropriate method of teaching; poor spelling of technical terms; shallow knowledge of the subject matter. while Ornole (2017) was of the opinion that 75 percent failure in mathematics and sciences is worrisome, the WAEC Chief Examiners Report (2018) revealed that only 48.42 percent credit pass was recorded in the 2018/2019 NECO examination result in physics. There is the need to identify teaching strategies that students can relate with, share ideas and interact academically within themselves. Therefore the present study is conducted to look at the effects of method of concept mapping with activity-based combined as a strategy in teaching sound wave on secondary school students’ academic achievement in physics in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State with the view to proffering solutions based on research findings on the issue.

 

 1.2     Statement of the Problem

Media reports in recent year revealed that students enrollment in universities to study medicine, pharmacy and physics related courses was very low. This situation was attributed to students poor achievement in physics particularly at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and Universal Tertiary and Matriculation Examination (UTME). A credit pass in physics at WASSCE is a requirement for admission into these all important programmes at the tertiary level. Students poor achievement in physics may be attributed to teachers lack of use of instructional materials and appropriate method of teaching.

Similarly, the physics chief examiner’s report has in recent years, indicated a steady decline in candidates performance in physics. Most of these reports indicated that candidates perform poorly in questions  from  sound waves and pressure in fluids. On this basis, the present researcher intends to find out whether teachers’ teaching strategies could contribute to students achievement. In particular, to experiment with concept mapping combined with activity-based methods.

 

1.3    Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to determine the effects of concept mapping combined with activity-based methods as strategy in teaching sound wave on secondary school students’ academic achievement in physics in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Specifically, the study seeks to:

• Find out whether there exist any difference in mean achievement scores of students when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based methods and lecture method.
• Find out whether students’ mean achievement scores differ by gender when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based strategy.
• Find out whether mean achievement scores differ by students’ ability level when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based strategy.

 

• Research Questions

Three research questions were raised to direct the study:

• What is the difference between mean scores of students when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based as a strategy and lecture method.
• What is the difference between mean scores of by gender when taught sound waves using concept-mapping combined with activity-based method as a strategy.
• What is the difference between mean scores of students by ability level when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based methods as a strategy.

 

• Research Hypotheses

Three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

• There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based strategy and lecture method.
• There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of  students by gender when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based methods as a strategy.
• There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students by ability levels when taught sound waves using concept mapping combined with activity-based method as a strategy.

 

• Significance of the Study

The results of the study will be of immense importance to students, teachers, school managers, policy makers and researchers in the following ways:

• The result of the study will help students of science and physics in particular to identify learning strategy that enhances retention.
• It will encourage students to embrace concept mapping strategy as it helps identify link for easy acquisition of scientific knowledge.
• It will enlighten teachers on the importance of using concept map and guided discovery for physics teaching.
• It will assist education managers to identify teaching strategies that best suitable for science teaching so as to monitor the teaching strategies adopted by science teachers in the schools. This will help maintain the shift from teachers- centeredness to learner-centeredness.
• It will also help education managers to see the need of providing adequate instructional facilities and conducive teaching learning-environment promotes hands-on, minds on learning.
• The result of the study will provide basis for policy makers when making policy statement regarding science teaching strategies.
• The result of the study will provide relevance information to researchers who might carry out study on a related issue.

 

• Delimitation of the Study

The scope of the study was restricted to concept mapping combined with activity-based methods as a strategy for teaching  sound waves to secondary school physics students.

 

• Limitation of the Study

In the course of conducting the study, three major problems posed significant threat to the success of this exercise.

First, there was reasonable financial constraint in terms of funds to procure and process materials required for the research. This situation occurred because the researcher did not benefit from any external source of finance except financial contribution of the parents which was not adequate for project of this magnitude.

Secondly, the researcher was faced with climatic problem. This is because the major part of the research exercise was done during rainy season, hence, affecting the coverage of the larger scope as suggested by the research topic. Hence, the need to cover some selected secondary schools in the area.

Thirdly, the researcher was faced with time constraint because one year allocated by the school authority for the completion and submission of this report was inadequate for wider coverage on this issue. This is because the researcher was also occupied with other academic issues during the period which has posed significant threat to successful coverage of the largest scope. Hence, the selection of some secondary schools and limitation of the study to only SS2 physics students in some selected secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

 

• Definition of Terms

The following terms were operationally defined:

Concept mapping: Concept mapping is a teaching method in which the use of schematic diagram to represent a set of concepts about the topic. The arrangement is embedded in framework of pre-position in the relationship between the concepts as articulated in the diagram.

Teaching strategy: Teaching strategy is one in which two or more methods are combined to teach students in learner-centred  process (Awodeyi, 2017).

Activity-based method: Activity-based learning (ABL) is defined a learning method in which students are engaged in the learning processes. In other words, teaching is learner centred.

Sound Wave: A sound wave is an air pressure disturbance that results from vibration. The vibration can come from a turning fork, a guitar string, the column of air in an organ pipe, the head of a snare drum, steam escaping from a radiator, the reed on a clarinet, the diaphragm of a loudspeaker, the vocal cords, or virtually anything that vibrates in a frequency range that is audible in a listener.

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