Effect of practical activities on students’ process skills, conceptual understanding, and performance in measurement in physics

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of practical activities on senior high school students’ process skills, conceptual understanding and performance in measurement in physics. Students from Form two science studying physics at Kaleo Senior High and Technical School (KASHTS) lack the skills and conceptual understanding in measurement in physics. It became evident when about 80% representing one hundred and seventy (170) students out of the entire physics student’s population of two hundred and twelve (212) struggled to apply certain measuring skills and simple concepts in measurement in physics. This led to most of the students showing abysmal performance during practical tests. The objectives of the study were to: identify the process skills students are unable to perform under measurement in physics, determine the pre-conceptual process skills of students in measurement in physics, determine the effect of practical activities on students’ conceptual understanding in measurement in physics and assess the effect of practical activities on students’ performance in measurement in physics. Action research design was adopted in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select an intact class of forty-nine (49) physics students in Form two at Kaleo Senior High and Technical School in the Upper West Region. The researcher used observational checklist, questionnaires and tests as instruments for the collection of data. These instruments were validated by my supervisor and other specialist in the field of physics whereas a pilot test was conducted at Queen of Peace SHS (40 students) attaining a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.960 representing a higher reliability. Both qualitative and quantitative method of data analysis were employed in this study. The qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics whilst the quantitative data were analysed using inferential statistics. Data collected were analysed by applying Paired sample t-test, mean, standard deviation and percentages using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 26. The findings revealed that students enjoyed practical activities and their post-responses as compared to their pre-responses of the intervention questionnaire indicated an improve conceptual understanding in measurement in physics. The analysis suggested that practical activities in measurement in physics had a significant impact on student performance, as evidenced by the higher mean and standard deviation of the post-test scores (29.7, SD=7.2) compared to the pretest scores (13.6, SD = 4.4), and the significant results of the paired sample t-test (p = 0.010<0.05, t = 16.13>1.68). Generally, the observations made during the post-laboratory test (Table 4.2) compared to the pre-laboratory test (Table 4.1) and opinions expressed by the students after the intervention showed an important effect of practical activities on students’ process skills. The study recommended that measurement in physics should be treated with much attention at Kaleo Senior High and Technical School as it serves as the foundation to which all aspects of physics is built upon.