Influence of Science Process Skills Teaching Approach on Secondary School Students' Achievement in Chemistry Practical in Kisii South Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

This study focused on the influence of Science Process Skills Teaching Approach (SPSTA) on secondary school students' achievement in Chemistry Practical. The science process skills which were selected for the study include experimenting, observation and classification. The objectives of this study were: To determine whether the achievement of students who are taught using SPSTA is statistically different from that of students who are taught using the RT methods in chemistry practical and to compare the achievement of the boys and the girls taught using SPSTA in Chemistry practical. The study employed quasi- experimental, Solomon Four non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A sample of 366 students in the four schools was selected. SPSTA was used to teach the experimental group while the control group was taught using the regular teaching (RT) methods. All groups were taught the chemistry content on the topic ‘Salts' which is part of the Form Two Chemistry syllabus. A Chemistry Practical Test (CPT) was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA, ANCOVA and t-test. Hypotheses were tested at a significance level of coefficient alpha (α) value of .05.  Results of the study show that there was a statistically significant difference between the achievement means of students who were taught through SPSTA and those taught through RT methods in Chemistry practical. The researcher concludes that SPSTA facilitates students' achievement in Chemistry practical. The researcher recommends the use of SPSTA in Chemistry teaching in order to improve the students' achievement in Chemistry practical.