The effect of digital media on senior high school students’ performance in organic chemistry nomenclature

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of digital media on the academic performance of senior high school students in organic chemistry nomenclature. It was carried out in the Central Region of Ghana. The research study adopted the non-equivalent quasiexperimental research design using the pre-test and post-test design. The sample comprised 103 students from Potsin Senior High School and Winneba Senior High School who were selected on purpose. Form 3 science students from Potsin Senior High school were forty-eight (48) in number which formed the control group of the research. Fifty-five (55) form 3 science students comprising 31 males and 24 females were drawn from Winneba Senior High School to form the experimental group. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to both groups before treatment to determine their conception of organic chemistry nomenclature. After, a pre-test was administered to all the participants to determine their performance level in organic chemistry nomenclature. Treatment was administered to the experimental group using digital media and the control group was taught using the traditional method of teaching. After the treatment, a post-test was administered to both groups to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. Another 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was also administered to students of the experimental group to determine their views of digital media in teaching organic chemistry nomenclature. The tests (pre-test, post-test) and questionnaire results were then analysed using Microsoft excel 2019 and SPSS version 25.0 respectively. When the results of the two methods were compared, the digital media was found to be more effective than the traditional method. Results also revealed that there was no differential effect of digital media on male and female students‘ performance in organic chemistry nomenclature. The responses to the questionnaire proved that the majority of students agreed that digital media is an effective method of teaching organic chemistry nomenclature It is therefore recommended that chemistry teachers should adopt digital media in teaching and chemistry teachers should be made to attend workshops, seminars and conferences to update their knowledge of the methods of teaching concepts in chemistry