EFFECT OF 5Es CONSTRUCTIVIST INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDE TO CHEMISTRY
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effect of 5Es constructivist instructional model on students’ achievement and attitude to chemistry. The high rate of failure in chemistry necessitated this study. The study employed a quasi-experimental design, specifically, the pretest posttest non-equivalent control group design. The study was carried out in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting four (4) coeducational secondary schools out of the 30 secondary schools in Nsukka LGA; two schools were drawn from the urban area and two from the rural area. These four schools were selected because they have common qualities such as; well-equipped science laboratory, qualified chemistry teachers and two streams of SS I class each. The choice of coeducational schools and urban and rural school is because gender and location are variables in the study. Two instruments were used for data collection in this study, namely; Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Student’s Attitude Scale (SAS). Six research questions and six hypotheses guided this study. The data collected for the research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation and the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results among others revealed that 5Es constructivist instructional approach was superior to conventional instructional method (lecture) in facilitating students’ achievement and attitude to chemistry than the conventional lecture method. There was no significant difference in the mean scores of male and female students in chemistry after the treatment, although male students performed slightly better than their female counterpart. The result of the study also revealed that urban students taught chemistry using 5Es constructivist approach had higher mean achievement and attitude scores than their counterparts in the rural areas. In line with the findings of the study, the educational implications of the findings were highlighted and the recommendations were equally proffered among others recommendations that science teachers (chemistry) should employ r5Es constructivist approach in teaching, authors and textbook writers should adopt 5Es constructivist approach when designing and redesigning the curriculum in other to enhance students’ achievement and attitude to chemistry. Finally, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies were equally made.