INVESTIGATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEMISTRY STUDENTS’ ACQUISITION OF MANIPULATING AND MEASURING SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS USING LABORATORY-BASED PEDAGOGIES

This study aimed at investigating the effect of laboratory-based pedagogies on Secondary School Chemistry students’ acquisition of manipulating and measuring Science Process Skills. The research design used for the study was non-randomized, pre-test – post-test, control group design. The population of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two (1782) students across 7 Schools in Okrika local government area of which a sample size of 63 Senior Secondary School 2 (SSS2) Chemistry students from 3 of these Schools were selected by purposive sampling technique. Science Process Skills Acquisition Test (SPSAT) and Science Process Skills Rating Scale (SPSRS) were the instruments used for the test. For the treatment, laboratory-based pedagogies of 3 types - teacher-demonstration (control group), independent work and small group (experimental groups) methods were adopted. Two research questions and two null hypotheses drawn from them were formulated to guide the study. Statistical tools applied were mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and ANCOVA to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study stated that there was significance difference between the three different groups taught using these different methods. Meanwhile, the independent work effect was better on acquisition of manipulating and measuring skills followed by those of small group method and teacher-demonstration method came least. It was therefore recommended that independent work and small group laboratory-based methods be used for teaching of Secondary School Chemistry students for acquisition of manipulating and measuring skill.