Effects of mastery learning strategy on students’ achievement in symbols, formulae and equations in chemistry

 

Mfon Effiong Udo* and Theresa Maurice Udofia

 

Research Article | Published May 2014

Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, Vol. 2(3), pp. 28-35

 

 

Department of Science Education, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria.

 

*Corresponding author. Email: mfonudo33@yahoo.com.  Tel: 08027604180.  

 

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This study investigated the effectiveness of mastery learning strategy in facilitating students’ achievement on the concepts of symbols, formulae and equations in chemistry compared with the traditional expository method given their gender and interest in the subject. It was a quasi-experimental study conducted in selected co-educational secondary schools in Nsit Ibom and Ibesikpo-Asutan Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, using one hundred and eighty three SS2 chemistry students as sample. Three research questions were raised for answering and three null hypotheses were formulated for testing. Two researcher-developed instruments - Achievement Test on Chemistry (ATC), a 25 item, 4-option multiple choice test drawn from the concepts of Symbols, Formulae and Equations, and Students’ Interest Scale (SIS), a 20 item Likert scale developed for assessing students’ interest in chemistry with reliability co-efficient of .80 and .76, respectively, were used for data collection. Data collected were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results of analyses of data showed that students taught using mastery learning strategy performed significantly better than those taught using the traditional expository method; and that gender had a significant influence on the students' performance with the males outperforming their female counterparts. However, students' interest was not observed to be a significant determinant of the students' performance. Consequently, it was recommended that teachers of chemistry should always adopt mastery learning strategy in teaching these concepts; and that earnest efforts should always be made to ensure gender friendly science classrooms.