ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Effect of Computer Simulation on JHS Two Students’ performance in Science in University Practice School, Winneba

Students in University Practice North Campus JHS in Effutu Municipal were not motivated by the methods of teaching adopted by their Integrated Science teachers. This study therefore exploited the use of computer simulation to improve upon teaching and learning of Integrated Science among students. It was an Action Research where quasi-experimental design was adopted. Three research questions were raised to direct the study. The sample size of eighty eight (88) was made up of all JHS 2 students of University Practice North Campus School. Convenience sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the students to form the sample for the study. Five class tests, an observational checklist and opinionnaire were used for data collection. The descriptive statistical method was used in data analysis. It was found out that students performed poorly in Integrated Science when they were taught lessons using traditional method and they also had negative attitude towards teaching and learning of Integrated Science when traditional method was used to teach them. The results revealed that, students understood the selected topics better when they were taught lessons using computer simulations. The study revealed further that the use of the computer simulation had improved students’ performance and enhanced their attitude in teaching and learning of Integrated Science. The implication for teaching and learning was that computer simulation support system made science classroom more realistic as students were actively involved; since students observed things in their natural forms. Therefore Integrated Science teachers should be equipped with the ICT skills to enable them to use computer simulations to teach more topics in Integrated Science. This would enhance teaching and learning of Integrated Science at the JHS level

Source: UEW
Effect of computer simulation on JHS two students’ performance in science in University Practice School, Winneba

Students in University Practice North Campus JHS in Effutu Municipal were not motivated by the methods of teaching adopted by their Integrated Science teachers. This study therefore exploited the use of computer simulation to improve upon teaching and learning of Integrated Science among students. It was an Action Research where quasi-experimental design was adopted. Three research questions were raised to direct the study. The sample size of eighty-eight (88) was made up of all JHS 2 students of University Practice North Campus School. Convenience sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the students to form the sample for the study. Five class tests, an observational checklist and opinionnaire were used for data collection. The descriptive statistical method was used in data analysis. It was found out that students performed poorly in Integrated Science when they were taught lessons using traditional method and they also had negative attitude towards teaching and learning of Integrated Science when traditional method was used to teach them. The results revealed that, students understood the selected topics better when they were taught lessons using computer simulations. The study revealed further that the use of the computer simulation had improved students‟ performance and enhanced their attitude in teaching and learning of Integrated Science. The implication for teaching and learning was that computer simulation support system made science classroom more realistic as students were actively involved; since students observed things in their natural forms. Therefore Integrated Science teachers should be equipped with the ICT skills to enable them to use computer simulations to teach more topics in Integrated Science. This would enhance teaching and learning of Integrated Science at the JHS level.

Source: UEW
The effect of computer simulation on the performance of students in the concept of digestion

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of computer simulations instructional packages on the performance of students‘ learning of the topic, digestion. The study used the entry point, post-test and exit point quasi experimental design method in a mixed sex Senior High School. The study used all fifty (50) students of SHS 2 Home Economics 1 and forty eight (48) students of SHS 2 Home Economics 2 at Odorgonno Senior High School in Accra, Ghana. A post-test consisting of ten multiple-choice, five true or false, five fill in blank spaces and a five short theory test items on digestion was given to two treatment groups. Descriptive and paired t-test statistics were used for answering the research hypothesis. The classroom interactions of students of the two treatment groups were observed to find out how their attitudes towards computer simulation and its effectiveness improved their performance. The assigned codes of classroom interaction were also subjected to further analysis using simple percentages. The results indicate that the performance and content knowledge in digestion among both groups after the post-intervention and exiting point improved as compared to the entry point mean scores. Computer simulation did prove to be superior to the traditional teaching approaches. The findings seem to suggest that computer simulation holds great promise for the teaching and learning of science concepts. It has therefore been recommended that computer simulation strategies be incorporated in the teaching of biology as it has a positive effect on the attitudes of students. As a result, there is a need for teachers and teacher educational institutions to reinforce the use of computer simulations in the teaching and learning science.

Source: UEW
The effect of concept mapping on students’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration at Akim Swedru Senior High School

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of concept mapping strategy on students’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration at Akim Swedru Senior High School. The study was done with a sample of one hundred and five (105) second year students studying elective biology. The study was conducted over a six-week period. The students were pre- and post-tested using a teacher-constructed biology test. Results showed that there were significant differences between the experimental group taught with concept maps and the control group that learnt with the traditional method. Moreover, there were significant differences in the performance of females taught with concept maps and males taught with concept maps. These indicate that concept maps help students understand, identify the key concepts, and connect the various concepts. It was therefore recommended that concept mapping should be adopted by ags a teaching method by biology teachers in other Senior High Schools. It was also suggested that that the study be replicated across different regions.

Source: UEW
Effect of concept mapping on the performance of Apam Senior High School students on photosynthesis

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the the effect of concept maps or mappings on the performance of Apam Senior High School Students on photosynthesis. A convenience sampling was used to select 55 Home Economic students of Apam Senior High School. Biology Achievement Test on photosynthesis was used to assess the students‟ performance. Interviews and a five points Likert scale questionnaire was also designed to determine the students' response to the use of concept maps. A Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.86 was obtained which indicated that the instruments used were reliable. To ensure that the instruments were valid, both tests were developed from the SHS biology textbooks and the syllabus. Their responses from the questionnaires were also used to design observation schedule to confirm the students‟ responses and opinions in the questionnaire. The major findings that came out of the study were that; there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest means scores of the students and that they performed better when concept maps were used to teach them. There was also a significant difference between the performance of males to females and that the males outperformed their female counterparts in the study. Also, after the used of the intervention, the students were enthused with the use of concept mapping strategy and that the intervention helped them to perform better. The students also felt that concept mapping helped them to keep ideas longer in their memories and reduced rote memorization of facts.

Source: UEW
Effect of concept mapping strategy on students’ achievement in the teaching and learning of circulatory system

This study investigated the effects of concept mapping teaching strategies, (concept identifying, proposition identifying, student generated) on Colleges of Education students‘ achievement on circulatory system. Five research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study was a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design involving one treatment group and one control group. The Sample of the study comprised of 95 first year integrated science students purposively drawn from two Colleges of Education in the Northern part of Ghana. Fifty students from Gbewaa College of Education consisting of 28 males and 22 females as the experimental group and 45 students from Bagabaga College of Education made up of 25 males and 20 females as the control group. Two instruments: Circulatory System Achievement Tests (CSAT) and a structured questionnaire on effectiveness of concept mapping developed by the researcher were used for data collection. Concept maps were assessed using a scoring instrument created by Lomask, Baron, Greig and Harrison (1992). The validity and reliability of these instruments were established. The items on the questionnaire were subjected to item analysis while construct validity analysis was established for CSAT. The reliability of the instruments was established using Pearson‘s test – retest correlation co-efficiency before it was administered. Means, Standard Deviation, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-Test were used to analyse and interpret data obtained. The study, among others showed that concept mapping instructional strategies significantly enhanced students‘ interest in science. The findings further revealed that the use of concept mapping instructional strategies in teaching was most effective way of improving students‘ performance in the teaching and learning of circulatory system in Integrated Science. In conclusion, the control group had a higher pre-test mean score as compared to the experimental group. However, the experimental group had a higher post-test mean score as compared to the control group due to the treatment. Finally, the findings recommended that Science tutors should use concept mapping teaching strategy to improve their students understanding in difficult topics such as the excretory system.

Source: UEW
Effect of conceptual change texts on senior high school students’ cognitive achievements and attitudes toward electrochemistry

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of conceptual change texts on students’ cognitive achievements and attitudes towards electrochemistry. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which intact classes were used. The experimental group (N=51) was made up of SHS2 chemistry students and the control group (N=52) was also made up SHS2 chemistry students. Students’ misconceptions in electrochemistry were first identified using a structured interview and an electrochemistry concept test (ECCT) as pre-test. Students attitudes towards electrochemistry were also determined using the Attitude towards Electrochemistry Scale (ATECS). Both the ECCT and the ATECS were administered to students before and after the treatment. The results from the interview showed that students have many misconceptions in electrochemistry regarding electrochemical cells. There was a significant difference in cognitive achievement of students in the experimental group (M = 12.2, SD = 3.83) and the control group (M = 10.0, SD = 3.73), t (101) = 2.99, p = .003, d = .59. There was no significant difference in the attitude of students in the experimental group (M = 56.6, SD = 8.86) and those of the control group (M = 58.2, SD = 7.63), t (49) = -1.03, p = .305. There was no significant difference in the cognitive achievement of males (M = 12.06, SD = 3.67) and females (M = 13.12, SD = 4.79), t (50) = -.711; p = .480. Also there was no significant difference in attitude of males (M = 56.6, SD = 8.77) and females (M = 56.6, SD = 9.94), t (49) = -.006, p = .995. The results revealed that conceptual change texts resulted in a better acquisition of scientific concepts and cognitive achievement of students in electrochemistry than the traditional teaching approach.

Source: UEW
The effect of constructivist instructional approach on students’ performance in chemical bonding concepts

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of instruction based on constructivist approach on students‘ achievement and views of students towards constructivist instructional approach in teaching chemical bonding. The study was a mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) within the Action Research Paradigm. A diagnostic pre-intervention and post-intervention test questions and a questionnaire were used to collect data. The questionnaire was on a 5-point Likert Scale and was used to investigate students‘ attitude towards constructivist instructions. The mean percentage of students on correct answer for the pre intervention Multiple Choice Questions was 38.6 percent and that of the post intervention was 88.0 and for the pre-intervention theory it was 27.13 and that of the post-intervention theory was 83.207. The findings of this study showed that students‘ conceptual understanding and performance in chemical bonding was largely improved after instructions based on the constructivist approach. The study also showed that majority of students appealed more to the constructivist approach than traditional instructions. Students agreed to have a higher interest in the participatory class since the mean of attitudinal scale was 3.9; they also agreed that chemistry should be taught in an interactive way with a mean of 3.8 on the attitudinal scale. It was therefore recommended that active student‘s participation approach could be used in the teaching of chemical bonding for effective learning and conception of chemical bonding.

Source: UEW
Effect of constructivist teaching approaches on junior secondary school students’ performance, retention and attitude in algebra

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of constructivist teaching approaches on junior secondary school students’ performance, retention and attitude in Algebra within Okene Metropolis of Kogi State in Nigeria. The study leveraged on constructivism theory which posits learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design which adapts the pre-test, post-test, post post-test on Experimental Groups and Control groups. A sampling size of 600 out of 54,490 was selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Three research questions were raised and tested with three null hypotheses. One of the major results showed that the students taught with the constructivist teaching approaches have significantly higher score than those taught with lecture method. The major implication of the study for teaching and learning of Algebra in particular, and Mathematics in general, is that learner-centred teaching approaches leads to better performance of students. The study concluded that the use of constructivist teaching approaches (Activity-Based, Guided-Discovery and Problem-Solving) have significant positive effects on academic performance, retention and attitude of junior secondary school students towards Mathematics. It was recommended that the teachers of Mathematics should collaborate with publishers to publish Algebraic books written with the principles of constructivists teaching approaches. Teachers, curriculum planners and stakeholders in Education should include samples of lesson note on how to teach Mathematics with constructivist approaches during Curriculum Reviewed, Workshops, Seminars, etc.

Source: UEW
The effect of cooling rate on the mechanical properties of carbon steel on welded joints

AISI 1028 Low carbon steel is a type of steel that contains 0.05% to 0.25% of carbon, Its easiness to cut, form, weld and its excellent mechanical properties makes it very useful in numerous industrial activities. It is the least expensive of the carbon steels to produce and buy. This makes it the preferred steel for manufacturing auto parts, pipelines, and for ornamental uses like gates and fences for homes and businesses. This study has become very necessary because of the current economic situation in the country, making most of the welders using scrap metals instead of the new ones for fabrication and construction works. The specific objectives of this study is to evaluate the effects of cooling rate on new and scrap carbon steel metals on welded joints by the Manual Metal Arc Welding Process and to appraise the effects of the cooling rate on the mechanical properties of the welded joints using experimental and analytical methods. The heat treated welded samples were cut and machined to standard configurations for tensile strength, hardness and impact test. The results showed that there are significant effect of heat treatment on the hardness, tensile strength and impact energy of both the new and scrap carbon steel. The results indicated that the new low carbon steels were 3.10%, 5.55% and 28.94% harder than the scrap carbon steel when cooled in water, air and oil respectively. It also proves that the ultimate strength of new low carbon steel were 38.91%, 38.40% and 42.75% and its elasticity 31.95%, 64.88% and 46.78% higher than the scrap carbon steel when cooled in water, air and oil respectively. However, when the impact energy values were considered, the scrap carbon steel had higher impact energy of 54.55%, 32.14% and 35.78% as compared to the new carbon steel.

Source: UEW
The effect of cooperative instructional approaches on selected Diaso Senior High School students’ understanding of redox reactions

The researcher employed cooperative instructional approaches as alternative teaching approaches involving selected Diaso Senior High chemistry students to determine whether the students would gain understanding of redox reaction content better than their counterparts who did not receive this teaching method. The study was conducted using the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic third year students with the 2013/2014 academic year students receiving the traditional lecture method and the 2014/2015 year students receiving the cooperative instructional approach method. The sample size was 64 of which 29 were in the control group and 35 students in the experimental group. The control group was made up of 4 girls and 25 boys and the experimental group was made up of 7 girls and 28 boys. The mean age for both groups was 18.1 years with standard deviation of 1.22. The research design was of the quasi experimental in which mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse data. Test, interviews and questionnaires were the instruments used to gather data. Percentages of students of experimental group who responded correctly to the test items were compared to percentages of students of control groups who responded correctly to test items. The post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups were compared to see if there was any difference in their mean scores. It was found that the mean post-test score of the experimental group was higher than the mean post-test score of the control group. The experimental group students‘ learning attitudes towards cooperative instructional approaches were also investigated using a questionnaire. Based on the analysis of the questionnaires, it was found that the experimental group students developed positive attitudes towards cooperative instructional approaches. Based on the findings of this research, it was recommended that the Ghana education service organize workshops to introduce SHS science teachers to cooperative instructional approaches. Additionally, it was suggested that studies be conducted on various aspects of the problem investigation in this study.

Source: UEW
Effect of cooperative instructional approaches on students’ performance in chemical bonding at Asuom Senior High School

This study investigated the effect of cooperative instructional approach on the performance of Form One General Science students of Asuom Senior High School in chemical bonding. The study adopted an action research design and utilised the purposive sampling technique to select an intact class of forty (40) students for the research. Data were gathered using tests and questionnaire, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study indicated that students exhibited a notable improvement in academic performance from the pre-intervention test (Mean= 6.18) to the post-intervention test (Mean= 9.84). The t-test analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the pre-intervention test mean score and the post- intervention test mean score (p= 0.037; p< 0.05). Also, the findings revealed the effects of the intervention on the mean performance of both male (Mean= 6.81) and female (Mean= 9.67) senior high school (SHS) students in chemical bonding. The t-test analysis of the pre and post-intervention test scores revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean academic performance of the male and female SHS students after being taught with cooperative instructional approach were p-value = 0.028 and its lesser than the alpha value which is 0.05. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed that SHS students have overwhelmingly positive views on the use of cooperative instructional approach in the teaching and learning of chemical bonding. Based on the findings the researcher recommended that teachers should include cooperative instructional approach as in their lessons to increase student’s confidence level. Additionally, teachers should engage students in cooperative instructional activities to enable students the exhibit attitudes needed for effective group methods. Teachers should use cooperative instructional approaches to sustain students’ interest in lesson activities and ensure their active participation as well.

Source: UEW