Effects of cooperative e-learning and conventional teaching approaches on secondary school students' achievement and attitude towards chemistry in Koibatek sub-county, Kenya

The study of Chemistry at secondary school level help students in developing basic scientific skills, knowledge and competence required in problem solving in their environment. However, this might not be achieved unless teachers employ effective methods of techniques during instruction. Performance of students in Chemistry in Kenya at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations is poor. The poor performance may be partly attributed to teaching methods used by teachers and students‟ negative attitude towards the subject. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the effect of Cooperative E-learning Approach (CELA) on students‟ achievement and attitude towards Chemistry. The study was carried out in Koibatek sub-county Kenya where a persistent low achievement in the subject has been registered. The study focussed on the mole concept topic in Form three Chemistry syllabus. Solomon Four Non-equivalent Control Group Design was employed in the study. Twelve county schools were purposively selected from the 40 secondary schools in the sub-county and randomly assigned to Experimental Group one (E1), Experimental Group two (E2), Control Group one (C1) and Control Group two (C2). Data was collected from a sample of 489 Form three students two instruments namely, Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Student Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) were used for data collection. The instruments were pilot-tested in two secondary schools in the county which were not part of the study, but had similar characteristics as the sample schools. This was to estimate the reliability and validity of the instruments. CAT had a reliability of 0.87 while SAQ had 0.78. Two groups the Experimental Group (E1) and Control Group (C1) were pre-tested whereas Experimental Group (E2) and Control Group (C2) were not pre-tested. All groups were taught the same course content for a period of five weeks with the experimental groups receiving their instruments by use of CELA approach and control groups using conventional methods. A post-test CAT and SAQ were administered to all groups after the treatment. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). One way ANOVA, ANCOVA and t-test were used in data analysis. Hypotheses of the study were tested at α=0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study indicated that students in the experimental groups outperformed the control groups in achievement and in attitude towards Chemistry. Also the study found that gender factor did not affect the achievement and attitude of students towards Chemistry when CELA was used in teaching. School type did not affect the achievement of students in Chemistry. It is therefore recommended that, Chemistry teachers incorporate this method in teaching in secondary school level especially in the topic “The Mole”. Government education agencies and other education stakeholders should organize teachers‟ workshops on the use of CELA strategy to enhance better performance. Teacher education programme in Kenya in Tertiary institutions should be improved to prepare teachers who can apply innovative approaches such as CELA which promotes effective teaching and learning. This could be achieved by practical demonstration of CELA in the classrooms during microteaching and teaching practice exercises.