Improving Secondary School Physics Students’ Computational Dexterity using the Means-End Analysis (MEA) Approach in Solving Problems in Projectile Motion

Abstract

The study was aimed at improving secondary school Physics students’ computational dexterity using the Means-End Analysis (MEA) in solving problems in projectile motion. Two research questions were raised and answered while two hypotheses were formulated and tested. Quasi- experimental design specifically, the pre-test, post-test experimental and control group method was adopted for the study. Using the purposive sampling technique, 93 SS2 Physics students were selected in public secondary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government Area, Rivers State. Data collecting instrument was Projectile Motion Performance Test with a reliability index of r = 0.78. Data obtained for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while while Analysis of Covariance and Scheff’s Post Hoc analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there was better improvement of students’ computational dexterity when solving problems in projectile using the Means-End Analysis than the Conventional Instructional Method. This is also evident by the Ho 1 , F (1,90) = 124.483 and p = 0.00 < ? = 0.05. The study also indicated that male students improved in their computational dexterity in projectile motion than their female counterparts across both groups employed for the study, while Ho 2 showed that there is no significant difference between male and female students mean performance scores exposed to Means-End Analysis (MEA) approach and Conventional Instructional Method (CIM) in improving students’ computational dexterity in solving problems in projectile motion in Physics [F (1,88) = 0.035 and p = 0.851 > ? = 0.05]. The study recommends that Physics teachers in secondary schools should adopt the Mean-End Analysis approach especially during teaching of topics that are mathematical (like projectile motion) so that students’ computational dexterity will be improved.