THE EFFECT OF CONTEXT-BASED LEARNING ON THE CONCEPTS OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDE: THE CASE OF UDE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN ADEAWEREDA, OROMIYA REGION, ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

Effective teaching of any subject will not only stimulate students’ interest in the subject, but also enhance applicability of the concept in real life situations. The purpose of this research is to study the effects of using context-based learning concepts of electrochemistry on students’ achievement and attitudes. The research work was quasiexperimental design type. This study was conducted on two-groups of grade 10 Ude secondary school of which 96 students in control group that was designed on traditional learning approach in which pre-test and post-test exams were given in 2018 and left the school and 81 students in the experimental group from 2019 that was designed on context-based approach exclusively thought by the researcher for three weeks. Multiple choice achievement test, observation checklists, Likert scale type and closed ended and open ended questionnaires were used as a means of data gathering. The mean score averages and standard deviations of score distributions were calculated while t-test was used for group comparisons. The result of the chemistry achievement test on the pre-test analysis showed that there was no significant different between the experimental and the control group as the calculated p-value, 0.925 is greater than that of the 95% confidential level where p-value is 0.05. 0n the other hand, the result of the chemistry achievement test on the post-test analysis showed that the experimental group students demonstrated significantly higher academic achievement (M=15.6) as compared to the control group (M=12.5), where, the calculated p-value (0.027) is less than that of the 95% confidential level of the p-value (0.05). Moreover, results indicated that students in the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher motivation levels, attitude levels as compared to the control group. Thus, the study concluded that context-based learning increased students’ achievement levels in the test scores as well as improved their attitude towards the concepts of electrochemistry