EFFECT OF SOFTWARE-ORIENTED CONCEPT MAPPING ON PERFORMANCE IN ELECTROCHEMISTRY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

This study determined the effect of using Software-Oriented Concept Mapping on performance in electrochemistry among secondary school students in Kakamega County, Kenya. It was based on David Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory, and implemented through a sequential mixed methods approach. Quasi-experimental research design, using non-randomized pretest-posttest control group model, was adopted to implement the study’s quantitative phase, while focus group interviews were used for the qualitative phase. Target population was 4,000 form four students and 30 Chemistry teachers from secondary schools in Kakamega County, which offer computer studies. A sample of 400 students and 10 teachers was selected by multi-stage sampling procedure, through a combination of purposive, proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The dependent variable was academic performance at five levels; achievement, self-efficacy, attitude, motivation and experimental skills, while the independent variable was instructional strategy at two levels; Software-Oriented Concept Mapping and Conventional Instructional Strategies. Students’ gender and school type were the intervening variables. The study was piloted two weeks to the actual study, in two secondary schools within Kakamega County. Observation check-lists, close-ended questionnaires and standardized achievement tests were used to collect the study’s quantitative data, while focus group interview guides were used to collect qualitative data. All the research instruments were validated using the Rasch Model, while reliability of the quantitative instruments was assessed, also using data from the pilot study, via the internal consistency alpha coefficients method. Percentage validity scores for the instruments ranged between 74 and 86, while their reliability coefficients ranged between 0.729 and 0.877, both measures surpassing the minimum thresholds set by various educational research experts. Frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were employed to analyze the collected quantitative data descriptively. The study’s null hypotheses were tested inferentially at the 0.05 alpha level of statistical significance, using parametric tests. These included; 2×1 Factorial ANOVA, One-Way ANOVA, Bivariate Pearson’s Correlation, ANCOVA and Standard Multiple Linear Regression. Qualitative data on the other hand were analyzed in themes as they emerged. Findings revealed a significantly superior effect of Software-Oriented Concept Mapping on students’ academic performance in Electrochemistry when compared to the use of Conventional Instructional Strategies to teach the same topic. These findings have important instructional implications in the field of Chemistry education. It is recommended that Chemistry teachers and students in Kenya should fully incorporate the use of Software-Oriented Concept Mapping in their daily teaching and learning, so as to mitigate the low academic performance currently being reported in the subject at national level.