Effect of Four–Mode Application Technique on Students’ Interest in Secondary School Chemistry

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Four – Mode Application Technique (4MAT) on interest of secondary school chemistry students. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses formulated were tested at .05 significant level. Non-equivalent control group of Quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Enugu education zone of Enugu state with a sample size of Two hundred and ninety-five (295) SSII chemistry students (132 boys and 163 girls). Organic Chemistry Interest Inventory (OCII) with reliability index of 0.86 was the instruments developed, validated and used for pre-test and post-test. The experimental group was exposed to 4MAT while control group was exposed to lecture method. All the research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean interest scores of students taught organic chemistry using 4MAT, F (281.346), p<.000, and there was no significant interaction between gender and teaching strategies on students’ mean interest scores in organic chemistry, F (22.058), p<.818. In line with the findings of the study, the educational implications of the findings were highlighted, and recommendations proffered among others that science teachers, science educators, authors and textbook writers should adopt 4MAT when teaching or writing of textbooks to enhance students’ interest in chemistry.