EFFECTS OF DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND ADVANCE ORGANISER ON STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMICAL STOICHIOMETRY

Abstract

The study examined the effects of Advance Organiser and Dimensional Analysis on the Senior Secondary School Form Two (SS2) Chemistry students in stoichiometry. The pre-test-post-test experimental research design was used to investigate the effect of the treatment on the students' achievement in stoichiometric concepts. Six public schools were randomly selected. The schools were randomly assigned to three groups of Conventional Lecture, Advance Organiser and Dimensional Analysis treatment groups. The responses of one hundred and seventeen students who participated in the treatment and wrote pre-test-post-test stochiometric tests were analysed for the study. There were two validated instruments; the treatment packages and the stoichiometric test. The treatment packages and stoichiometric test were pilot-tested in a school that was not part of the sampled schools for the study. The instruments were positively correlated with stoichiometric test correlation coefficient value of 0.76 using Pearson Product Moment. The inter-rater reliability of the instructional packages using Scout n values for Conventional Lecture, Advance Organiser, Dimensional Analysis were 0.72, 0.74 and 0.75, respectively. The results of analysis of the treatment using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) indicate significant difference in the achiement of the students by treatment. The results of pairwise comparisons among the teaching methods show that the Advance Organiser and Dimensional Analysis are more effective in enhancing the achievement of stoichiometry thanthe Conventional Lecture method.However no significant difference between Advance Organiser and Dimensional Analysis on the students' achievement. The implication of the finding is that Advance Organiser and Dimensional Analysis promote students' knowledge of stochiometry. The study recommends the methods for teaching of Chemistry concepts that are mathematical oriented.