Effects of Practical Activities and Manual on Science Students’ Academic Performance on Solubility in Uruan Local Education Authority of Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of practical activities and manual on science students’ academic performance on solubility in Uruan Local Education Authority of Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted pretest, posttest non randomized quasi experimental design. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. One hundred and four (104) science students from the population of two thousand, nine hundred and fifty (2, 950) senior secondary two in 2015/2016 academic session formed the sample size using simple random sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was a 20- multiple-choice-test item on the concept of solubility. The instrument was validated by three experienced secondary school science teachers of over 10 years teaching experience and by three lecturers from the department of science education and test and measurement unit of the University of Uyo, Uyo. Kuder Richardson formular 21was used in determining the reliability of the instrument was which .80. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study showed that students taught solubility with practical activities performed equally with their counterparts taught the same concept with practical manual. Results also showed that gender had no significant influence on the students’ mean performance scores when taught solubility with practical activities and practical manual. Recommendations among others were that science teachers should make effective use of practical activities and manual in teaching abstract concepts like solubility.

Keywords: Practical activities, Science manual, Solubility, Experimentation, Students’ performance