Effect of Collaborative Teaching Strategy on Students’ Academic Achievement, In Physics in Public Secondary Schools in Nyeri County, Kenya.

Abstract

Science education is a key driver for development because technological and scientific revolutions underpin economic advances, improvements in health systems and infrastructure. The study of Physics, as a science subject has seen technological advancement and improved speed of communication. It has resulted to quality security systems and use of high precision equipment in hospitals and industries. However, secondary school students’ achievement in Physics has been declining. Different factors including the different strategies used in teaching Physics have been reported to affect students’ achievement in Physics. Based in Nyeri County the study assessed the effect of collaborative teaching strategy on secondary school students’ achievement in Physics. The Solomon Four group quasi experimental design was used. A sample of 173 form four students in four mixed day secondary schools in Nyeri County participated in the study. The sample was obtained through purposive sampling to obtain a list of mixed day secondary schools that offer the Physics subject at form four. Through random sampling a list of four schools that participated in the study was obtained. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The research instruments consisted of Physics Pre-test (PPT) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT). The Kuder Richardson test was used to determine the reliability of the PPT and PAT. A reliability coefficient of 0.7 and 0.8 was obtained for the PPT and PAT respectively. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA) were used in data analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. Hypotheses was tested at α=0.05 level of significance. The study established that Collaborative Teaching Strategy enhanced students’ achievement in Physics. The study recommended that teachers should expose students to Collaborative Strategy more frequently and teacher training programmes to equip teachers with skills for collaboration. The findings of the current study are helpful to the curriculum developers in revising curriculum towards learner centeredness by in cooperating collaborative activities. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development may find the information useful during in servicing of teachers towards making the curriculum more learner centered. The Instructional material developers may find the information useful while developing materials that enhance learner activity. The findings of the study may be useful in implementing the competence based curriculum at secondary school level through incorporation of collaborative tasks since collaboration is one of the core competencies to be achieved through the curriculum.