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

the way activities of higher and lower learning demand were designed or presented (Millar, 2018). Traditional laboratory classes normally involve students carrying out teacher-structured laboratory exercises or/and experiments, where each step of a procedure is vigilantly prescribed and students are expected to follow and adhere to the procedures precisely. This kind of laboratory activity is in which little student involvement with the content is required. For such kind of activities, Johnstone, add that students can be successful in their laboratory class even with little understanding of what they are actually doing. Physics practical should be conducted in such a way that they interact with ideas, as much as the phenomena themselves. It is necessary for teaching to focus upon scientific ways of talking and thinking about phenomena, rather than the phenomena themselves (Niaz, 2015). Teachers can employ a wide variety of teaching strategies to engage students ‟ minds in learning. Reports emphasize that teaching science with the help of chemistry practical makes chemistry to be more enjoyable and stimulating to students than teaching the same subject matter only through lecture. Students have a lot to benefit from Physics practical which may include increasing students ‟ interest and abilities in the subject as well as their achievement in Physics. b) Frequency of physics practical Teachers usually control the frequency and, to some extent, the quality of Physics practical in schools. The volume and variety of physics practical in schools has lessened over time. In many situations, the cause of this is the focus on ‘teaching for examination ‟ , which has squeezed out some types of Physics practical. Many teachers complain that, with pressure to get through the syllabus, they cannot find room for many Physics practical. Teachers are being required to achieve better examination results and one response to this has been to focus more on„ book learning ‟ which is more easily managed than physics practical. Teachers had to teach didactically to get through the content according to the examining body specifications (Zitoon, 2016). Practical in physics are expensive, particularly the costs of replenishing apparatus and chemicals. When combined with insufficient budgets to provide enough technical support, materials and equipment and lack of time to prepare the chemistry practical, the frequency of performing practical definitely suffers. Apart from being expensive on resources and time, student laboratory experiments are more difficult to plan or organize and supervise National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (2015) survey of science teachers on factors affecting teachers ‟ use of Physics practical found that 64% lacked time for experiments while many teachers said that safety rules had put them off. 87% of respondents said learning which allowed more experiments and scientific enquiry would have a more significant impact on performance (Tamer, 2021). Science teachers are not alone in reporting lack of time as a barrier to doing more chemistry practical. For example, a study Busia, found that science teachers generally find enquiry-based laboratory work very difficult to manage. The high costs and constraints of chemistry practical limit the number of lessons planned involving chemistry practical and hence the frequency of Physics practical goes down. The practice-based teaching and learning approach is far more understood as a suitable approach to impart in learners long-lasting knowledge and skills (Bonnell et al., 2011). The widespread of technological tools coupled with vibrant discoveries and rapidly changing living styles due to high societal demand has concurrently pushed science educators to direct their teachings towards practical work, thus, allowing beneficiaries of knowledge and skills to gain practical skills that of course could be easily applied in a real-life situation. For instance, practical work in teaching and learning physics is accompanied by several advantages as it has been pointed out in many studies (Musasia, Abacha, and Biyoyo, 2018); Scanlon, Morris, Di Paolo, and Cooper (2020). Advantages of practical work include but are not limited to; • Imparting in learners long-lasting life skills. • Encourages self-learning. • Promotes experiential learning. • Discovering reality unrevealed in theories. • Facilitating the implementation of concepts based on personal experience III. M ethodology a) Research design The study was conducted using descriptive survey design to investigate the effects of physiocs practical on the performance of students. Kumar (2015) defines a research design as a plan, structure, and strategy of investigation to obtain answers to research questions or problems, while Kothari (2004) defines it as the blueprint for collection, measurement and analysis of data. The design was used to asses the variables i.e practicals, nature of practical, frequency of physics practical and importance of physics practical. This enabled in obtaining the opinion about the effects of physics practical on performance. Kerlinger (2016) recommended survey design as the best method to be used for collecting systematic factual data for decision making and efficient method of descriptive information regarding characteristics of population and the current practice and conditions b) Target population Target population or universe of a study is all the members or objects involved in the study (Kothari, © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 49 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 G Effect of Physics Practicals on Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Matayos Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya