Effect of Experiential Teaching Strategy on Senior Secondary School Students' Retention and Self-efficacy in Physics in Ondo, Nigeria

Abstract

The performance of senior school students in external physics examinations is still not one hundred percent due to many factors which include: poor attitude, poor motivation, poorly sourced teaching and learning environment and poor teaching methods. Several other innovative teaching methods such as experiential teaching strategy (ETS) have been used in other parts of the world, which have improved the teaching and learning of physics. This study investigated the (i) effects of experiential teaching strategy (ETS) on students' retention in physics in Ondo (ii) influence of students' self-efficacy when taught physics using experiential teaching strategy. The study was a quasi-experimental, non-randomised, non-equivalent, pretest and posttest control group design. Two intact classes of senior school II physics students from two senior secondary schools took part in the study. A total of 95 students comprising of two groups, experimental group (EG = 42) and control group (CG = 53) were involved. The instruments were Physics Performance Test (PPT) and Physics Students Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSSEQ). The reliability of PPT and PSSEQ was done using Kuder-Richardson' Formular 21 (r =0.77) and Cronbach Alpha Coefficient (r =0.97) respectively.  Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested using t-test and Analysis of Covariance. Findings from the study revealed that: (i) physics students taught physics using experiential teaching strategy were able to retain physics concepts learnt better than students taught physics using conventional teaching strategy (ii) there was no significant difference among high, medium and low students' self-efficacy when taught physics using experiential teaching strategy. The study concluded that students who were taught physics using ETS out-performed students in the control group. The implication of this study is that students' performance in physics would be better if students are taught using experiential teaching strategy.