Integrating exemplary materials and flipped classroom instruction to enhance students’ performance and motivation in chemical bonding and nomenclature

Abstract

The study focused on integrating exemplary materials and flipped classroom instruction to enhance students’ performance and motivation in chemistry. The study involved three stages, namely pre-intervention, intervention and post- intervention. The action research design was employed in this study at Gbewaa College of Education, Pusiga in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 40 students for the study. Test and questionnaire items were the research instruments used to collect data for the study. A test- retest method was used to calculate the reliability of the test items. Reliability indices of 0.833, 0.794, and 0.824 were obtained for the test items. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency of 30 questionnaire items. Qualitative data based on students’ preconceptions were analysed and classified into levels of understanding and causes of conceptual errors among the respondents and through the use of descriptive statistics. Quantitative data on the other hand were analysed using student t-test at 0.05 level of significance to determine significant differences between pre-intervention test and post- intervention test scores.The questionnaire items were analysed using Regression analysis.The results showed that the use of Wooden Atomic Models and hence, the integrating exemplary materials and flipped classroom instruction enhanced the teacher trainees’understanding and levels of motivation in chemical formulae and the nomenclature of inorganic compounds, helped both males and females to improve their levels of understanding and majority of the students exhibited three levels of understanding spiraling from no understanding, understanding with specific misconception to partial understanding. These levels of understanding were characterised by four types of errors which overlapped each other. Among other recommendations, it was suggested that, Wooden Atomic Models and integration of exemplary materials and flipped classroom instruction be respectively used as teaching and learning materials and instructional strategy to enhance students' performance in chemical formulae and nomenclature of inorganic compounds.