The study determined the effects of personalised and group-based mastery learning strategies on students’ retention in Chemistry in secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Three specific purposes, two research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The quasi experimental, pre-test, post-test research design was used. The population of the study comprised 16,786 senior secondary two students from the 253 public secondary schools in the state. A sample of 146 students (84 boys and 62 girls) was selected from three intact classes using multi-stage procedure and purposive sampling technique. Two instruments were used in the study, namely Mastery Learning Instructional Packages (MLIP) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). The MLIP were face validated by three lecturers from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State while the CAT was subjected to content validation. The reliability of the CAT obtained through test-retest method was 0.84. The mastery learning instructional packages constituted the treatment that was given to the experimental groups 1 and 2 while the control group was taught with the conventional lesson plans. The experiment lasted for six weeks covering six lessons. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that there was significant difference in the mean retention scores of students in Chemistry when taught with personalized and group-based Mastery Learning Strategies and lecture method. There was no significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students in Chemistry when exposed to Mastery Learning Strategies. Moreover, there was no significant interaction effect of teaching strategy and gender on students’ retention in Chemistry. It is recommended, among others, that Chemistry teachers in Akwa Ibom state secondary schools should henceforth adopt the mastery learning strategies (personalized and group based) in teaching important concepts in Chemistry while the lecture method should be de-emphasized.
Keywords: Mastery learning Strategies (personalized, and group-based), retention, Chemistry, gender
Written by:
Michael Saviour Udoh
Prof. A. O. Ovute
Department of Science Education,
Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State.
Email: udomysave2016@gmail.com
Dr Namkere J. Udoudo
Department of Industrial Technology Education,
University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Email: namkerejudoudo@uniuyo.edu.ng