Comparative Effect of Improvised and Real Materials on Chemistry Students’ Academic Performance in Senior Schools

Abstract

Instructional materials are used in teaching in order to minimizes rote learning and enhance students’ practical experiences and creativity skills. Despite the importance it is worrisome that senior schools do not have adequate instructional materials with the huge sum of money spent by Government. This study investigates the effect of real and improvised instructional materials on chemistry students’ academic performance in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Four purposively selected senior secondary schools in Ijero local Government area consisting of 180 senior secondary class II chemistry students of four intact classes made the sample. Two schools were assigned to experimental group which received treatment of involvement of teaching using improvised materials and the other two schools were assigned to the control group which were taught using real materials. Twenty-five (25) item chemistry test (CT) validated by science education experts and having reliability of 0.82 using Kudar Richadson 20 was used as the instrument. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Mean, standard deviation and t-test were used to answer the research hypotheses. The findings revealed no significant difference in the mean academic performance of the two groups before treatment but was significant after the treatment. The experimental group also performed significantly better than the control group in creativity skills. It is recommended that teachers should improvised materials in order to improve students’ manipulative skills. While text book writers and curriculum developers should include activities in the textbooks and curriculum that will enhance creativity that are capable of leading students to self-reliance. Keyword: Academic performance, Chemistry students, Real, Improvised, Materials and Comparative. Aims Research Journal Reference Format: Alake, E.M. (2022): Comparative Effect of Improvised and Real Materials on Chemistry Students’ Academic Performance in Senior Schools. Advances in Multidisciplinary and Scientific Research Journal Vol. 8. No. 4. Pp 17-23 www.isteams.net/aimsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/V8N4P3