Effect of Discussion and Invention Teaching Strategies on Senior Secondary School Students Achievement in Chemistry in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Discussion and Invention Strategies on
achievement in chemistry. The moderating effects of academic ability and
gender were also investigated. The study adopted a pretest, posttest, follow
up test, and control group quasi-experimental design with a 3x2x2 factorial
matrix. The participants consisted of 224 senior secondary II chemistry
students from intact classes in nine selected secondary schools in delta
central senatorial district. The instrument for data collection include
“Chemistry achievement test”, (r = 0.84), “Ability test in Chemistry”, (r =
0.85) and teachers instructional package. Six research questions were asked
and answered, while three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05
alpha levels. Data were analysed using analysis of variance and covariance,
while Sheffe Post-hoc analysis was used to explain the significant difference.
There were significant effects of treatment on students achievement in
chemistry (F (2.820) = 73.77) and students of varying abilities (F(11.242) =
2.03). But, there were no significant effect of treatment on Gender on
achievement (F (1.000) = 0.93) in Chemistry. The two instructional strategies
improved students’ achievement in chemistry concepts more than the
traditional lecture method. It was recommended that teachers should
therefore adopt these two instructional strategies in the teaching of chemistry
at the senior secondary school level.