Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 22 Issue 4

Effect of Physics Practicals on Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Matayos Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya Hezekiah Adwar Othoo α & Chrispin Masake Omunyin σ Abstract- Teaching of Physics in secondary schools has not yielded desired results in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Educ ation examinations ge nerally in Kenya and especially in Matayos Sub-county, Busia County. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physics practicals on students’ performance in Matayos sub-county Busia County. Existing studies indicated that increasing effectiveness in teaching and learning positively influence performance not only in Physics but other subjects also. The objectives of this study were; to determine the effects of physics practical on performance; to find out the nature of physics practical and to determine how frequency of physics practical influence performance. A descriptive correlation study was carried out in selected secondary schools in Matayos Sub- County, Busia County. The target populations for this study included 15 physics teachers and 180 students totalling to 195 respondents. 65 of the population will be sampled using random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used to collect data . Data collected quantitatively and quantitatively were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as means, mode, median, frequency and percentages. The findings will be presented in tables, graphs, charts. The findings may be of help to educational practitioners, policy makers, curriculum planners in addressing performance of Physics in secondary schools. Keywords: frequency,; practicals,; performance,; quality,; chemistry. I. I ntroduction a) Background of the study ducation around the world has developed from a teacher-centered learning transforming into a student- centered learning that teaches students how to take responsibility for their own learning and become more independent. Many teachers still follow traditional practices such as direct lecturing, strict use of textbook as the only reference, and rarely extend their teaching to make it relevant to real-life scenarios. As stated by Yore (2018), this does not place any importance on the development of critical thinking skills and whole concepts that are important to science literacy. On the other hand, Cobb, McClain, de Silva Lamberg and Dean (2018) state that: “Design experiments have both a pragmatic bent and a theoretical orientation developing domain-specific theories by systematically studying those forms of learning and the means of supporting them. Physics education is in crisis. Enrolment in Physics courses at all levels is low. Reasons for this range from inadequate learner preparation, weak mathematics background, inadequate teacher qualifications as well as possession of below standard pedagogical and content knowledge on the part of the teacher (Semela, 2017). Many students regard Physics as difficult, and they therefore find the subject boring and non-enjoyable (Hirschfeld, 2018). Enrolment in Physics is decreasing, learning motivation is declining, and the examination results are getting worse (Garwin et al., 2020). In many school settings, little time is allocated to the discipline as compared to the time allocated to the languages and mathematics, which are the other important and core subjects. Worse still, this subject is made an elective at Form Three level which makes its attractiveness less to the learners many of whom opt out as early as at Form Two level. Training in conducting school type science experiments to a large extent is completely ignored in many universities’ teacher-training curricula. Many, if not all, Kenyan university-trained Bachelor of Education (Science) graduates lack the skills of handling high school type practical work. There are no school-type laboratories set aside for this exercise in the various universities that train teachers (Masingila & Gathumbi, 2020). Being a science subject, effectiveness of teaching Physics should be judged by the kind of practical activities that teachers and students engage in (Oyoo, 2018). The consequence is that Physics teachers lack the skills for effectively guiding learners in conducting laboratory work; and therefore, the attendant advantages of performing practical work are lost on the learners. The goals of practical work are to improve students’ understanding, develop their skills in solving problems and understanding the nature of science, by replicating the actions of scientists. Sotiriou, Bybee and Bogner (2017) state that: While solving a scientific problem, students should act like a scientist and follow scientific processes. According to Hodson (2019), practical work can motivate students, stimulate their interest in teaching and learning, enhance the learning of scientific knowledge, give them experience in using scientific knowledge and widen their way of thinking. E © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 47 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 G Author α : Department of Education Psychology, Management and Policy Studies, Alupe University College, Kenya. e-mail: hezruakas@gmail.com Author σ : School of Education and Social Science, Alupe University College, Kenya.