Abstract:
An action research was conducted by providing an alternative method, first principle
approach, to enable students deduce limiting reagents in chemical reactions. Purposive
sampling technique was employed to select 50 SHS 2 science students at Sunyani Senior
High School in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana for the study. This sampling technique
was used because the participants needed to be students who had just completed a course in
stoichiometry and chemical equations in chemistry. The instruments used to gather data in
this study were questionnaire and tests. The internal consistency of the items on the
instruments was verified by examining the coefficient alpha of the various items in the
instrument using the scores from the pilot-testing to determine the reliability. The overall
reliability coefficient alpha for each of the two (2) test instruments constructed was found to
be 0.70. After recording the scores from the pre-intervention and post-intervention tests, the
SPSS version 16.0 computer programming for analysing data was used to analyse the
scores. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data in terms of standard deviation,
frequencies, percentages and bar charts. The findings of the study indicate that the first
principle approach helped the students to deduce the limiting reactants in chemical reactions
better than other approaches. This is evident by the fact that 80% of the students scored at
least 50% of the marks in the post-intervention test, after they have been introduced to the
first principle approach, as against only 14% students scoring at least 50% of the marks in
the pre-intervention test. It is recommended that teachers consider the use of this first
University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
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principle approach during instruction for the benefit of all students. It is also suggested that
further research be done on this topic by other researchers in other places of the country.
Description:
A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, FACULTY OF
SCIENCE EDUCATION, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE
STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF
THE MASTER OF EDUCATION (SCIENCE) DEGREE
DECEMBER, 2012