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ABSTRACT

The study was designed to develop and validate achievement test in environmental related physics concepts for Senior Secondary two students. This became necessary because of the need to have a well developed and validated instrument for teachers use in continuous assessment exercise. The study was guided by five research questions and three hypotheses, using instrumentation design. The population for the study was made up of 501 physics students in Senior Secondary School two classes (2013/2014 session) in Idah Education Zone of Kogi State. The sample comprised of 68 male and 83 female physics students, giving a total of 151 students. The instrument developed and validated was Environmental Related physics Concepts Achievement Test (ERPCAT) for SS II. The validity and reliability of the instrument was established. The reliability index was found to be 0.7 using Kudder- Richardson formula 21 (KR – 21). Mean and standard deviation were used to provide answers to the research questions, while t – test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed, among others things, that there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the mean achievement scores of students based on gender. The  null  hypothesis on  the  influence of  gender on  student’s achievement was rejected  in  favour  of  the  females.  A  significant  difference  (P  <  0.05)  in  the  mean achievement of Physics students in various locations was established. There is a significant difference (P < 0.05) established for school type. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended, among others, that Senior Secondary 2 physics teachers should make use of ERPCAT or tests similar to them in the assessment of achievements of their students in Environmental Related Physics Concepts. There is a need to improve on the resources (material and human) available in rural schools.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Physics is crucial for effective living in the modern age of science and technology. Physics  is  the  study of natural occurrence phenomena  at  its  most  fundamental level (Olumuyiwa  and  Okunola  1992).  Given  its  application  in  industry  and  many  other professions, it is necessary that every student is given an opportunity to acquire some of its concepts, principles and skills. The general objectives of the physics curriculum according to Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) 2008, includes to:         Provide basic literacy in physics for functional living in the society;

        Acquire  basic  concepts and  principles  of physics as  a  preparation  for  further studies;

        Acquire essential scientific skills and attitudes as a preparation for technological application of physics; and

        Stimulate and enhance creativity within the environment.

The study of physics enables one to explain some laws of nature we experience within our environment.

Webster’s New World Dictionary (2003) defines environment as the conditions, circumstances; and influences surrounding and affecting the development of an organism or group of organisms.  According to the Dictionary of Geological Terms, prepared under the direction of the American Geological Institute and published by Dolphin Books (1962), environment is the sum total of all the external conditions which may act upon an organism or community, to influence its development or existence. Some concepts taught in the

physics curriculum are environmental related. For instance, Heat Energy, Wave – Light Wave, Sound Wave, Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, and Equilibrium of forces, Density and Upthrust, Humidity and Weather, and Friction.

Heat energy is regarded as energy in the process of transfer from one place to another as a result of temperature difference between them. Heat can be transferred from one point to another in three media; these are solid, liquid and gaseous media, it is use in cooking, drying and in other industrial application. Wave is a disturbance which travels through a medium and transfers energy from one point to another, without any permanent displacement of the medium itself. It has classes and types which includes, mechanical and electromagnetic waves, transverse and longitudinal wave. It is used in communication and has application in medicine and industries. Light are electromagnetic waves which do not require a material medium for their propagation. It consists of electric and magnetic vector that  are  perpendicular to  each other,  and  it  brings  about  sensation of seeing  in  our environment, and has application in simple camera, film projector, among others. Sound is a wave that originates from a vibrating body, and the nature of the vibration determines the type of sound produced. It helps in communication and has application in communication industry, film industry among others. Newton’s Law of Universal gravitation comprises of the first law (the law of inertia), the second law and the third law. It is all about the definition of a force, the measure of the force and the property of the force which brings about motion in our environment, and its industrial application (Farinde, Ehimetalor & Dada, 2008).

Equilibrium of forces is when several forces are in equilibrium and there are no net forces or couples acting on them. Such forces are either stationary or moving with uniform

linear velocity or uniform rotational speed, and it has application in the Construction of Bridges and industry. Density and Upthrust refers to the mass of the substance per unit volume and the upward force that act on it when immersed in a fluid. It has application in floating objects like canoe, ship and industry. Humidity of the air refers to the amount of water vapour present in the air, and weather refers to frost, snow, hails dew, dew point, fog and mist, cloud and rain and how it affect the climatic condition of a place, it has effect in the prediction of the climatic conditions of a place. Friction is the opposing force acting opposite to the direction of motion, when a body slides over the surface of another body; it helps human being to work, car to move and brake, and other industrial application like wear  and  tear  in  machines  (Olumuyiwa  &  Okunola,  1992).  A  well  constructed and organized achievement test is used to test students’ understanding of these concepts. This is because, valid and reliable data can only be derived from valid assessment instrument (Ugwanyi, 2001).

According to Malcolm (2012), achievement tests are examinations that are designed to determine the degree of knowledge and proficiency exhibited by an individual in a specific area or set of areas. An achievement test is sometimes administered as part of the acceptance process into an educational program or to qualify an individual for employment or  a  promotion with  a  current  employer.  Nwagu (1992), conceptualized achievement testing, as a systematic and purposeful quantification of learning outcomes. This is to say that achievement testing involves the determination of the extent of attainment of individuals in a task, course or programmes to which the individuals were sufficiently exposed.

In other applications, the achievement test  serves as a tool to measure current knowledge levels for the purpose of placing students in an educational environment where they have the chance to advance at a pace that is suitable for their abilities (Malcolm,

2012). Achievement  is to  be  measured using a  valid and reliable  instrument. This is because, valid and reliable data can only be derived from valid assessment instrument, it becomes necessary for the teachers to deploy only such instruments in assessments (Ugwuanyi, 2001).

Development and validation of test items, refers to construction of a test items, and ensuring that the instrument (test) used measured what it was design to measure (Nworgu,

2006). The general trend in the development of achievement test has been; the definition of the constructs and content to be measured, identification of the target population, item collection and preparation, pilot study, item review, main study, and data analysis with regard to test characteristics (Ritter, Boone & Rubba, 2001). A valid and reliable test should have test characteristics that fall within the accepted range of values, for each characteristic,  such  as;  validity,  reliability,  discrimination index,  difficulty index,  and readability, and it should not be biased against any designated sub-group of test takers, such as gender, location and school type. These three factors, gender, location and school type has influence on student achievement.

Often times the terms gender and sex are used synonymously and interchangeably even among the academia. However, there is a clear distinction between the two terms. While sex refers to biological or anatomical features in the human body which make it to be classified as male or female, gender refers to the social or cultural construct, characteristics, behaviours and roles which society ascribes to male or females (Okeke,

2001). Fakorede as cited by Akinyele (2011), posited that poor performance of girls in science subjects is due to their inadequate achievement and interest of girls in science, inadequate knowledge of girls on the true nature of science, inadequate opportunity for girls to study science, and unfavourable attitude of girls to science learning. There is also critical belief of biological theorists that  gender differences are  natural and  therefore unalterable (Olubunmi as cited by Akinyele, 2011). This study sought to determine the influence of gender on student achievement.

For over four decades, series of studies have suggested the importance of school as social environment of learning. Some of these studies examined locational planning and their  attendant  consequences  on  achievement  of  students  in  various  states  of  the Federation. These school locational planning techniques have been reportedly used by a number of countries to solve their educational problems (World Bank Guidelines, 1978). The location of a school has a big role to play on the educational achievement of students in the school. Immediate environment of a child play a major role in the socialization of such a child (Owoeye & Yara, 2010). Therefore, the area in which a school is located can affect the educational achievement of a student. A school in the heart of the government reserved area (G.R.A) or housing estate cannot be compared with a school located in an unsuitable place like motor garage, main street, noisy environment, and nearness to a big market among others. Noisy environment is capable of hampering teaching and learning conditions. This study also, is to determine the influence of school location on student achievement.

School type, either public or private has influence on student’s achievement in science. Many of our public schools today are under-staffed and lack quality teachers in

science, lack laboratory equipments and  library facilities which result  in student poor achievement. Private schools today are well staffed, even though many of them are not trained  teachers,  have  good  laboratory  equipment  and  library  facilities  which  also, influence student’s achievement. According to Spyros (2006), the approach of identifying school effects is to compute the variation of academic achievement between schools. This approach involves the creation of the distribution of school-level achievement by computing the average achievement for each school. The variance of this distribution indicates how much average achievement differs from school to school. A significant difference between-school variation in achievement is therefore an index of the impact of schools on student achievement.

However, student’s performances in environmental related physics concepts can also be influenced by many other factors like sex, environment, school type, effectiveness of the teacher, psychological frame of the testees among others. In fact, much of the reliable variance in students’ performances can be accounted for by instructional variables and probably by interaction between three factors – learner, location, and instruction (Walbery

& Ahlegren as cited by Ansa, 1990). Consequently, gender, location, and school type are equally considered in this study too. Therefore the influence of these factors like gender, school type and school location on the science student’s academic achievement in other related works were explored too.

Some studies have been carried out to find the influence of gender, school type and school location on students’ achievement in science generally. Unfortunately, the findings seem to  be  inconclusive.  For  instance, Nwosu (2001), submitted that  gender had  no significant influence on acquisition of science process skills among the secondary school

students. Balogun (1996), also  found out that gender was not  a significant factor on biology and physics students’ acquisition of science process skills respectively; but Ogunleye submitted that all male schools performed better on skills acquisition followed by co-education schools. Njoku (2003), revealed that girls in single – sexgroup scored significantly higher mean in science process skills than girls in mixed sex group. Nkpone (2001), found out that girls achieved higher than boys in physics students’ science process skills  acquisition  test.  There  were  no  significant  differences  in  the  performances  of students on the bases of gender grouping according to Inyang & Ekpenyong (2000). Also Okoro & Etukudo (2001), found out that there was no significant gender difference in favour  of males  and  that  computer assisted  instruction has  more  significance on the performance  of  the  female  gender  in  chemistry  than  extrinsic  motivation  based  – traditional method.

Literature on the influence of school location on students’ achievement in science is equally   contradictory.   According   to   Ayogu   &   Nworgu   (1999),   urban   students outperformed their rural counterparts in physics achievement test. This is in agreement with the finding of Onunkwo (1995), that urban students outperformed their rural counterparts in his work. But these findings are contrary to the findings of Jegede (1985) and Ansa (1990) who found that students in rural schools performed significantly better their  counterparts in  urban  schools.    Okeke  &  Ochuba  (1986),  found  no  significant difference between urban school students and the rural school students.

The inconclusive nature of the finding on gender, school type and location might be due to the assessment technique used and area of science worked on. It is against this background, therefore, that a work of this nature which tries to develop and validate an

instrument for assessing the acquisition of these environmental related physics concept, includes finding out the influence of   these factors – gender, school type and school location on acquisition of these concepts using the instrument.

Following the available literature evidence, that there seem not to be valid and reliable assessment instrument presently in use for the assessment of these concepts and the inconclusiveness of the influence of gender, school type and school location on science achievement, became necessary that this study was not directed at the development and validation of instrument for assessment of these concepts, but tried also to find out the influence of gender, school type and school location on the acquisition of these concepts using the instrument developed.

Statement of the Problem

Achievement test remains the most important and appropriate instrument for determining whether learning has taken place or not. This can be determined only with valid and reliable assessment instrument. This calls for development of valid and reliable instrument for assessment in the three behavioural domains of educational objectives in every subject. With respect to environmental related physics concepts, it demands proper exhibition of concept for effective interpretation of existing phenomena, and these need to be assessed. However, it has been observed that teachers in our school system lack the necessary competence in developing and validating such instruments and use instrument that are not valid and reliable to assess students, and this reduces the effectiveness of students. Consequently, appropriate assessment instrument for these environmental related physics concepts,  is  therefore needed to  determine the  extent  of acquisition of these important concepts by the students.

Available  literature  evidence  has  shown  that   development  and  validation  of instrument for the assessment of these concepts have not been singled out. It becomes necessary that proper assessment instrument that can identify and assess these concepts be developed. The problem which this study addressed is the development and validation of achievement test on environmental related physics concepts.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study is to develop and validate an achievement test on environmental related physics concepts for senior secondary schools. Specifically, the study intends to;

1. Develop an instrument on environmental related physics concepts.

2. Establish the content validity of the achievement test.

3. Determine the reliability (internal consistency) of the test items of the instrument.

4. Determine the influence of gender on the responses of students to the items of the instrument.

5. Find out the influence of location on the responses of students to the items of the instrument developed.

6. Find out the influence of school type on the responses of students to the items of the instrument developed.

Significance of the Study

The findings of the present study have both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the findings will validate the theory of learning by Ausubel which held that, student learning of new knowledge relies on what is already known. That is, construction of knowledge begins with our observation and recognition of events and objects through

concepts we already have. Bruner is also of the view that learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge. The instrument when developed will be used to test learners, and know what they have already known and place them properly for further learning.

Practically, it is hoped that the instrument will play a diagnostic function by helping the students to discover the extent they have mastered the expected knowledge and skills. It will help the teachers to find out the extent of achievement of set out goals of the instruction, hence, the effectiveness of the instructional methods used. It will equally help parents to know how far their children / wards have acquired the needed knowledge and skills from schools.

It is also hoped that the use of this instrument will reduce examination malpractice that has flooded our educational system at least in this area. On the other hand, the use of this instrument by physics teachers and even evaluators like WAEC and NECO in both internal and external examinations for assessing environmental related physics concepts will make results more reliable and valid. It will give a true reflection of the student’s performance. It will help curriculum developers and educational researchers to introduce instrument development and validation into school programs and carry out research on how to develop valid instruments for educational measurements in every domain of the behavioural objectives respectively. The instrument will equally help students to be more diligent and increase their interest on the subject.

Scope of the Study

This  study,  Development  and  Validation of  Achievement  Test  on  Environmental Related Physics Concepts for Senior Secondary School, would be carried out in secondary schools, using physics students in Senior Secondary ll (SS 2) classes. The content scope includes; Heat Energy, Wave – Light Wave, Sound Wave, Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, Equilibrium of Forces, Density and Upthrust, Humidity and Weather, and Friction. These concepts are in Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) 2008 SS II physics curriculum, as shown in appendix D.

Research Questions

The following are the guiding research questions for this study:

1. What is the content validity of the environmental related physics concepts achievement test?

2. What is the reliability of the environmental related physics concepts achievement test?

3. What is the influence of gender on the mean score of environmental related physics concepts achievement test?

4. What is the influence of location on the mean score of environmental related physics concepts achievement test?

5. What is the influence of school type on the mean score of environmental related physics concepts achievement test?

Hypotheses

This study is guided by the following null hypotheses that will be tested at 0.05 levels of significance.

1. Gender has no significant influence on the mean score of students on the environmental related physics concepts achievement test.

2. There is no significant difference in the mean responses of students from different location on the environmental related physics concepts achievement test.

3.  School  type  has  no  significant  influence  on  the  mean  score  of  students  on  the environmental related physics concepts achievement test.


This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research



DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF ACHIEVEMENT TEST ON ENVIRONMENTAL RELATED PHYSICS CONCEPTS FOR SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KOGI STATE

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