EFFECTS OF INQUIRY-BASED CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTATION ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CHEMISTRY

Abstract

Students' attitude towards a subject is a key indicator of academic performance, therefore its enhancement is imperative for academic success. A sample of 328 grade eleven students was selected using cluster random sampling. Two different study groups; the experimental and control groups, were composed and exposed to the guided inquiry and demonstration methods of teaching chemistry experiments respectively. The Non-equivalent control group research design was employed with instruction lasting six weeks. Data on pre-test and post-test attitudes were collected using a 25-item attitude towards teaching and learning chemistry through experiment survey. Comparisons of mean attitude scores were made between the experimental and control groups, and between the pre-test and post-test for each group. The Mann-Whitney U test analyses indicated a higher mean attitude score for the control group. However, the difference in the mean scores was not statistically significant. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test analyses indicated statistically significant differences between the pre-test and post-test attitude mean scores for both independent groups. These outcomes show that both methods of teaching chemistry through experiments enhance students' attitudes to essentially the same extent. These findings imply that Liberian teachers can enhance students' attitudes through demonstrations. Keywords: chemistry experiments, demonstration, guided inquiry, non-equivalent control group, students’ attitude