EFFECTS OF DEMONSTRATION STRATEGY ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ RETENTION AND ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated Effects of Demonstration Strategy on Senior Secondary School Students’ Retention and Achievement in Chemistry in Taraba State, Nigeria. This study was necessitated by students’ achievement in secondary schools in Chemistry examinations in Nigeria and in Jalingo Education Zone in particular over the years in which there have been fluctuating low results. These fluctuating low results are due to teachers’ use of inappropriate teaching strategies in most secondary schools that do not encourage active learning by students through participation. This study adopted the quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group research design. The population comprised 1,500 senior secondary two (SSII) students in 32 co-educational secondary schools. The sample consisted of 95 SSII Chemistry students for both the experimental and control groups. A 50 multiple-choice Periodic Table Achievement Test (PTAT) was used to collect data and had reliability coefficient of 0.91obtained by the use of Kuder-Richardson formula 20. Two research questions guided the study while two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance. The research questions were answered descriptively by using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings from the study revealed amongst others, that Demonstration Teaching Strategy was more effective in improving students’ achievement and as well as enhancing students’ retention in Chemistry than the Lecture Teaching Strategy. Furthermore, the result revealed a significant difference of using Demonstration Teaching Strategy and Lecture Teaching Strategy on SS II students’ retention and achievement mean scores in chemistry. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others, that Chemistry teachers should adopt Demonstration Teaching Strategy in teaching Chemistry in senior secondary schools. Stakeholders should organize workshops, conferences and seminars for in-service and pre-service Chemistry teachers on the use of Demonstration Teaching Strategy in teaching Chemistry.