Effectiveness of Locally Constructed Amplifier on Secondary School Physics Students’ Achievement and Motivation towards Learning Energy Concept in Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

Secondary school physics students in Minna, Nigeria perceive physics to be a difficult subject probably because physics teachers have not been using appropriate resources in the teaching of abstract physics concepts. This study was therefore carried out to determine the effectiveness of locally constructed amplifier and physics students’ motivation towards learning energy concept when taught using the constructed amplifier. The research was an experimental research adopting a pretest, posttest experimental and control groups design. Three research questions were raised and one hypothesis was tested. Thirty secondary school one (SSI) physics students from two government-owned schools in Minna metropolis were randomly sampled for the study and assigned to experimental and control groups. Students in the experimental group were taught energy concept using the constructed amplifier while students in the control group learnt the concept using conventional lecture method. Physics Achievement Test (PAT) and Physics Students’ Motivational Questionnaire (PSMQ) ) were used for data collection. PAT consisted of 10 multiple choice objective question items on the concept of energy while PSMQ consisted of 15 items using a four point Likert Rating Scale. Both PAT and PSMQ were validated by experts and the reliability of a pilot study carried out yielded0.87 for PAT using KR-21 formula and 0.89 for PSMQ using Cronbach Alpha’s formula. Data collected from the administration of the research instruments were analyzed using percentage and t-test statistics in SPSS 16.0 version. Findings revealed that there was significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students in the two groups (t (58)=1.465, p<0.05) in favour of the group taught using the constructed amplifier. Also, 86.44% of the responses to the questionnaire revealed that students had positive motivation towards learning energy concept using the constructed amplifier. Based on these findings, it was recommended that physics teachers should encourage the use of locally constructed resources in the absence of commercial ones in order to facilitate students’ understanding of physics and positively motivate them towards learning abstract physics concepts.