Science Teachers' Assessment of Use of Hands: On Activities in the Management of Indiscipline in the Classroom

Abstract

Hands-on activities, as panacea for classroom indiscipline was assessed by science teachers. A descriptive survey design was used. Three research questions were asked and 2 hypotheses were tested. The sample consists of 197 science teachers out of a total of 394 in Abia State got by a combination of purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. Instrument for data collection is a researchers' developed structured questionnaire of the Likert type. The instrument was validated and the reliability index of 0.79 was got. Mean was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested with chi-square statistics. Results show that all the items were agreed to be useful in managing indiscipline. Gender has a significant influence in the management of indiscipline by hands-on activities while location did not show any significant influence on the use of hands-on activities in the management of indiscipline. It is recommended that teaching be activity- based in order to ensure that students' hands are on some activities that will occupy them thereby reducing indiscipline in the classroom.