Teachers' Attitude on ICT based Teaching in Physics and Impact of ICT use on Students' Academic Performance in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gives a chance for Educational Institutions and other organisations to develop and use technology to complement the teaching and learning process. Despite the heavy investment and donation of ICT resources to schools, it has been difficult to provide students with the ICT skills for them to function effectively in this dynamic and information-rich environment. Unless ICT is effectively integrated in teaching and learning, the investment for the development of ICT in schools could go to waste. The school curriculum may also not be able to realise its mission to produce learners who are ready for the job market, which is increasingly becoming reliant on ICT to generate and disseminate knowledge. One aim of this study was to find out the teachers' attitude towards using ICT in teaching Physics. The information needed was obtained through administering questionnaires to 148 Physics teachers both in public and private secondary schools. Further, the study sought to find the effect of using ICT on academic achievement of Secondary School Physics students in Mombasa County. To achieve this, an experiment was conducted involving 143 Form Two Physics students and one Physics teacher in a purposively selected secondary school. The quantitative data based on Likert Scale was analysed with the aid of the SPSS computer software (version 20) while the experimental data was analysed using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show that students performed better in Physics when ICT was applied in the teaching of Physics which agrees with others researchers in literature. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that it was necessary to avail better quality ICT resources with maintenance support to secondary schools for improved learner's academic performance in Kenya.