Influence of Conceptual Instructional Method on Students’ Performance in, and Attitude Towards Chemistry Practical among Secondary School Students in Zaria Educational Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria

The study investigated the Influence of Conceptual Instructional Method onstudents’ performance in, and attitude towards Chemistry Practical in ZariaEducational Zone of Kaduna State. The target population for the study was1401 S.S. II Science Students. The subjects in the coeducational schoolswere pretested and schools that did not differ significantly were chosen forthe study. A sample of 100 Students was randomly drawn from two coeducational senior secondary schools, within Zaria Educational Zone. Thesubjects were divided in to two groups: The experimental group and thecontrol group of 50 students each. The pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental control group design was adapted. The subjects in the experimental groupwere exposed to Conceptual Instructional Method, while those in the Controlgroup were exposed to the lecture instructional strategy for a period of sixweeks. The instruments developed and validated for data collection are:Chemistry Practical Performance Test (CPPT) with reliability coefficient of0.73 and Chemistry Practical Attitude Inventory (CPAI) with reliabilitycoefficient of 0.79. Two research questions were stated and two nullhypotheses were tested. The data collected were subjected to statisticalanalysis at 0.05 level of significance. The t-test statistics was used to testthe hypotheses on performance, Mann-Whitney U-test was used to testthe subjects’ change in attitude towards Chemistry Practical. The majorfindings from the study include the following: The practical performanceand attitude of the subjects exposed to Conceptual Instructional Methodwere significantly higher than their counterparts exposed to lecture methodof instruction.