Effects of Problem-Solving Strategy on Secondary School Physics Students’ Attitude and Academic Achievement in Jos North L.G.A., Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined Effects of Problem Solving Strategy (PSS) on Secondary School Physics Students’ Academic Achievement in Physics in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. A true experimental research design was used in the study. Two senior secondary schools of co-educational standards in Jos North Educational Zone Plateau State were selected from which 60 physics students were also sampled. Randomly, the students were assigned to the experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. Using PSS, the experimental group was taught the concepts Work Energy and Power (WEP) and Elasticity while the conventional lecture approach was used to teach the same concepts to the control group. The Physics Students’ Problem Solving Achievement Test (PSPSAT) and Physics Students’ Problem Solving Attitude Rating Scale (PSPSARS) were developed by the researcher with reliability coefficients of 0.85 and 0.74 respectively. The PSPSAT was used to determine the level of achievement of students taught using the PSS and their counterparts taught using conventional lecture method. On the other hand, the PSPSARS was used to determine the attitude of students towards problem solving. The content validity of these instruments was established by three experts. Employing SPSS version 22 software, data analysis was carried out using t-test for the PSPSAT and mean analysis for the PSPSARS. The findings of this study showed that the performance levels of both male and female students after treatment improved significantly though male students achieved slightly higher than their female counterparts after exposure to PSS. The results further showed that students taught using PSS performed significantly better than their counterparts taught with conventional lecture approach. Furthermore, the result revealed that students in private schools performed better than the students in public schools after exposure to PSS. The study concluded that the use of PSS promotes students’ understanding of concepts translating to optimal performance in physics examinations. It was recommended among others that authors and textbook writers of physics textbooks should transform physics textbooks into problem solving forms, apply and provide proper illustrations so as to meet the criteria of PSS as doing this would help in enhancing students’ achievement in physics.

Keywords: Physics, Problem-solving Strategy, Attitude and Academic Achievement.