Students and Teachers Perceptions of Physics Practical Work in Secondary Schools in Kakamega East Sub – County, Kenya

Abstract

In the last ten years, the Kenya national examination council (KNEC) has reported unsatisfactory performance in the physics practical paper 232/3 despite the enthusiasm for practical work among the teachers of physics. In its recent annual report (KNEC, 2011), the national mean scores in practical papers for years 2007,2008,2009, 2010 and  2011 were 25.85, 23.92, 22.37,22.24, and 15.22 respectively. The figures listed above are a clear indication that practical work in physics is not yielding the much anticipated results. It is in view of this observation that the present study was initiated in Kakamega east Sub County to establish the reasons for the current trends in the use of practical work in the teaching and learning of physics. The purpose of this study was to assemble, organize, scrutinize, analyze and interpret the students and teachers perceptions of physics practical work. In this study, a sample of 100 students and 20 teachers of physics drawn from fifteen public secondary schools by simple random method were used. A questionnaire was used to collect the raw data for this study. A pilot study for this study was conducted in two public secondary schools to establish the reliability of the research tool. The reliability of the tool was calculated using cronbach’s alpha formula and found to be 0.73. The information collected in the study was presented by use of frequency tables and analysed using percentages. The findings of the study indicated that the majority of the students and teachers viewed practical work as a series of investigations that requires good organization and familiarizes students with apparatus and enables them to learn by doing. It is hoped that the findings of this study will go along way in informing teachers of physics and curriculum developers. The findings of this study will be used by curriculum developers to review the current curriculum and make the necessary changes in line with the best practices.