Performance In Kinematics Using Cooperative Learning Among Secondary School Students In Sabatia Sub-County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Performance in physics at secondary school level in Sabatia sub-county has shown no

significant improvement in recent years. Analysis by the Kenya National Examinations

Council indicates that students do poorly in kinematics and this affects their overall

performance in physics. This poor performance has mainly been attributed to

conventional methods of teaching physics. It has been observed that schools that perform

well emphasize the use of emerging instructional methods such as cooperative learning.

There was therefore a need to investigate performance in kinematics using cooperative

learning among secondary school students. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to

determine the effect of using cooperative learning on performance among the secondary

school students in Sabatia Sub-County, Kenya. The research objectives were to

determine the effect of cooperative learning on academic achievement in kinematics,

measure the effect of cooperative learning on development science process skills in

kinematics , and determine the effect of cooperative learning on attitude in kinematics

.A quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test non-equivalent research design was adopted for

the study. The study population involved 270 form three students doing physics in public

mixed secondary schools in Sabatia sub-county. Purposive sampling was used to select

two schools that were used in the pilot study. Simple random sampling was used to select

10 schools from where the respondents were drawn. After which simple random

sampling was used to select one class from each school and all the students in the

selected class were assigned to either experimental or control group. Experimental or

Control groups were drawn from different schools. Reliability of the instruments was

determined through a test-retest technique for the achievement tests, through observation

of development of skills and demonstration of scientific attitudes in experiments in

kinematics for the checklists. The Achievement Test in Kinematics 1 yielded a reliability

of 0.84, Achievement Test in Kinematics 2 yielded 0.85, Science Process Skills

Observation Checklist yielded 0.785 and Science Attitudes Observation Checklist

yielded 0.767. Therefore each of the piloted instruments had a reliability coefficient of

above 0.7 which was deemed satisfactory. Data were collected using students’

achievement test in kinematics, students’ science process skills observation checklist and

students’ attitudes observation checklist. Data was analyzed manually using inferential

and descriptive statistics. It was concluded that cooperative learning was effective in

enhancing performance in kinematics among the students. Finally, the study

recommended the use cooperative learning in order to improve performance in

kinematics among secondary school students.