EFFICACY OF PRACTICAL PHYSICS SKILLS ON SENIOR SECONDARY TWO STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN PHYSICS IN BARKIN LADI, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of practical physics skills on senior secondary two students’ achievement and retention in Physics inBarkinLadi, Plateau State, Nigeria. The quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 920 senior secondary two (SS II) students who offered Physics; from whereassample of 130 SS II students from two intact classes, one eachfrom two co educational schools was obtained. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the two schools. The instruments used for data collection were the Practical Physics Skills Achievement Test (PPSAT) and the Practical Physics Skills Retention Test (PPSRT). The instruments were validated by three experts. Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (KR-21) was employed to obtain the reliability coefficient of PPSAT as 0.82.Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings from the study revealed, amongst others, that practical Physics skills improve students’ achievement and retention in Physics.One recommendation the study made, amongst others, was that Physics teachers should integrate practical physics into their teaching because practical skills significantly improved achievement