ENHANCING TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CHEMISTRY IN SECONDARYSCHOOLS USING COMMUNITY CONTACT INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUE IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study explored enhancing Chemistry teaching and learning in secondary schools using community contact instructional technique in southwestern Nigeria with a view to improving tuition in Chemistry by taking secondary students out of the classroom and laboratory into resource persons on concepts in Chemistry curriculum. The population comprised all Senior Secondary (SS) II Chemistry students in Ondo West Local Government Area, Ondo State. A sample size of 81 students formed the study sample. It adapted a pre-test, post-test, control group design. Instruments used for the study are Achievement Test in Chemistry (ATC), a standardized test, and Chemistry Attitude Scale (CAS). The reliability of Chemistry Attitude Scale (CAS) was ensured through Cronbach's co-efficient of0.82. Findings revealed that the community contact instructional technique improved students' per:formance(t 13.33;df 79; p 0.036<0.05)and attitude(t 45.16;df 88; p 0.00 < 0.05) better than the teacher exposito,y method. It is therefore, recommended among others that, community contact instructional technique should be adopted for learning and teaching to enhance conceptual understanding.