EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS CHEMISTRY ACHIEVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Chemistry is a major career subject in secondary education that is done by most of the secondary school students in Nandi North District. However, the subject has not been performed well in the past years. This could be attributed to inappropriate teaching methods employed in teaching and learning. Constructivist teaching strategy may help in improving teaching and learning of scientific concepts, but this had not been established in the District. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of using constructivist teaching strategy on students’ achievement and motivation to learn Chemistry. Solomon-Four Group Non-Equivalent Control Group Design was used. Four co-educational schools were chosen using simple random sampling out of the thirty two schools in the district. One hundred and twenty students and four teachers were involved in the study. The instrument that was used is Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) . A teaching module was developed for teaching the topic: ‘Effects of Electric Current on substances’ in Form Two for eleven lessons in a period of two weeks. Piloting was done in a different school within Nandi North District to ascertain the reliability and validity of the instruments. Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (KR-21) were used for establishing reliability of CAT . Reliability was established to be 0.74 . Data were analyzed using ANOVA, and ANCOVA. Hypotheses was tested at co-efficient alpha (?) = 0.05 level of significance. Results of the study indicates that constructivist teaching strategy enhances students’ chemistry achievement. The results of this study are may help in enhancing teaching and learning of chemistry. This method is recommended for teachers of chemistry as a complement for the conventional teaching methods. Teacher trainers can train teachers on constructivist teaching strategy. KIE can organize seminars workshops and refresher courses for chemistry teachers.