Rwandan secondary school students’ attitudes in learning chemistry: explored with task-based instruction

Abstract

This study intended to explore the contribution of Task-Based Learning (TBL) to raising students' attitudes toward learning chemistry. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design with 369 secondary school grade-2 students in Rwanda. The study randomly assigned students to two groups of differentiated instruction. Thus, the experimental group was exposed to the TBL method, while a control group was taught the teacher-centered method. An internationally standardized Chemistry attitude questionnaire of 0.831 Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was used before and after teaching and learning activity. The Kruskal Wallis test was computed in SPSS 23.0 to measure the effect of TBLin raising positive attitudes among students in the experimental group compared to the control group. The attitude gain was measured from pre-test to post-test in attitude variables. This study showed a statistically significant difference between the control group and the experimental group (ꭓ2 = 4.118, df = 1, p < .05). Furthermore, the students perceived chemistry's importance more than the other three variables (difficulty, interest, and usefulness of chemistry). Results also showed that gender affected students' perceptions of learning chemistry. Females students developed more positive attitudes than male students. However, school location statistically affecting students' attitudes towards chemistry. The study result implies that TBL method helped to increase students' attitudes toward chemistry. Recommendations were given to implement TBL methods in the chemistry classroom.