Use of Laboratory-based Pedagogies on Students’ Acquisition of Science Process Skills in Chemistry

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of laboratory-based pedagogies on senior secondary school students’ acquisition of science process skills in chemistry. Five research questions guided the study and five hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The research adopted quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test, and non-randomized control group design. Sample sizes of 63 senior secondary school two (SSSII) chemistry students from two public senior secondary schools in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers state, Nigeria were used for the study. The students were arranged in their intact classes for the study. Chemistry achievement test (CAT) structured by the researcher, covering acid-base titrations was validated and used for collection of data. The internal consistency 0-82 for the instrument was achieved by test-retest using Cronbach coefficient alpha. Data collected was analyzed using means and standard deviation for answering the research questions and two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for testing the null hypotheses. The results showed that use of laboratory-based pedagogies for teaching and learning of science of chemistry in particular is effective in the students’ acquisition of science process skills. Therefore, it was recommended that for acquisition and enhancement of science process skills in chemistry students, teachers should employ laboratory-based pedagogies.