Abstract
The current study investigates the effectiveness of practical work in physics on academic performance among learners of a secondary school in Rwanda. The study employs a quasi-experimental research design specifically pretest-posttest control group design (control group and experimental group). Two groups of learners of senior one at Groupe Scholaire Rugoma were treated differently through an expository and practice-based approach respectively. Physics achievement test prepared to evaluate the effect of practical work indicated that learners in the experimental group outperformed those of the control group treated by the expository teaching method. Various factors that may advance or hinder the implementation of practical work were identified and views from science teachers were collected. Most of the respondents strongly agreed that those factors have a significant impact on the implementation of practical work which in turn influence learners’ overall academic performance during Physics Achievement Test (PAT). A significant difference was observed from the statistical analysis performed by using SPSS version 21.0. (Pretest and posttest among learners in the experimental group; t = 27.243; 32.743; MD = 8.4239; 13.12500 respectively whereas the pretest and posttest among learners are as follow, t = 28.442; 32.627; MD = 9.82500; 2.38005 respectively and for all performance evaluation hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. Based on the observed results, it was found that practical work was more effective in improving learners’ performance in Physics. It was therefore concluded that practical work continues to be a promising approach in teaching sciences, particularly teaching Physics in secondary schools.
Highlights
In the past decades, the dynamic nature of science has been significantly influenced by ever-increasing technology in the field of education
The current study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of practical work in physics on academic performance among learners of senior one at the selected secondary school in Rwanda
As clearly detailed in the previous sections, it is hypothesized that within an academic environment various factors such as the extent to which learners engage in continuous learning, the availability or the absence of skilled facilitators, the nature of infrastructures, and the academic community mighty have an influence on conducting practical work smoothly within schools
Summary
The dynamic nature of science has been significantly influenced by ever-increasing technology in the field of education. Practice-based education has been the trending research focus by investigators in teaching and learning advancement. Countries have tremendously improved the way of instruction delivery in order to meet societal needs. Practical work is at the forefront in teaching and learning endeavors. According to Eslinger, White, Frederiksen, and Brobst (2008); García-Carrión, Molina Roldán, and Roca Campos (2018), teaching and learning modalities that are believed to equip learners with practical skills in socalled learning by doing are have been.
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