THE USE OF LABORATORY FACILITIES AND SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICS STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN WAEC EXAMINATION

1.1 Introduction

Physics laboratory work is an active learning activity which involves students performing experiments with concrete objects and concepts. According to Hofstein and Lunetta (2004), laboratory work not only promotes science content and knowledge but also science process skills, creative thinking and problem solving ability in students. Physics as a science subject is activity oriented and resource intensive. This suggests that the mastery of physics concepts cannot be fully achieved without the use of laboratory teaching and learning resources. The teaching of physics without learning materials and laboratory resources will certainly result in poor performance in the course. Physics laboratory instruction has all along consisted primarily of performing pre-set repetitive experiments, where students are made to go through a prescribed series of steps wherein they are advised to verify certain laws/concepts learnt in theory. Such a routine exercise neither promotes scientific investigative skills nor an understanding of the subtle interplay between observation and experimentation.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Physics Education study program students who will take the School Field Practice program must be able to follow the development of education in schools. High school education is currently experiencing very rapid development, 2013 Physics curriculum demand to bring up the critical and creative thinking skills of students. To fulfil students' abilities according to these demands, students who will carry out PLP must be prepared in lectures, not only capable of teaching skills but must also be able to have skills in managing school laboratories. A laboratory is an inseparable tool for learning in the fields of science, social and technology.

It can be realized with the help of researchers in physics education that students at secondary and even university levels continue to hold fundamental misunderstanding of the world around them. Science learning remains within the classroom context and just a small percentage of the students are able to use the knowledge gained at school for solving various problems of larger physical world. In most cases, students hear lectures without strong connections to their everyday experiences. Students do not usually have opportunity to form their own ideas; they rarely get a chance to work in a way to be engaged in discovery, building and testing models to explain the world around them. Results from research in cognitive science and physics education shows that activities in laboratories increase students’ learning, positive attitudes towards physics and permanence of knowledge. The one of the main goals of using laboratories in physics education is to teach students the philosophy, branches, topics, theories, laws of physics, the other one is to gain steps of the scientific method namely science process skills while learning the philosophy, branches, topics, theories, laws of physics.

One of the researchers listed the aims of widely using laboratories in science education as follows laboratories provides to get students to comprehend abstract and complex scientific concepts by using concrete materials, gain students problem solving and analyzing skills by comprehending the nature of science, develop practical experiences and special talents of students and enjoy students with laboratory activities and by this way to develop positive attitude towards scientifically working.

To many researchers, laboratory in physics education has not achieved its main goal, not provided meaningful learning and not developed positive attitudes towards science in recent years. As a result, it has been stated that more essential resources and time have to be allocated in order to enhance the effectiveness of laboratories in science teaching both in primary and secondary education. It was emphasized that the laboratory activities in science teaching were put into effect in 1960s, however, students could not reach the desired levels by using these activities. Yager and Engen concluded that laboratory experiences are not meaningfully adequate for students and therefore they do not make a significant contribution to their conceptual understanding.

Teacher’s provision in the sciences were examined in many countries and found that 45% of the schools surveyed indicated insufficient laboratories. This finding agreed with the finding in Saudi Arabia which indicated inadequacy in the provision of laboratory facilities in schools. The findings were also consistent with those found in Uganda which indicated that science education is faced with the problem of lack of resources with half the schools having no real laboratory. Few opportunities are provided for the students to discuss both experiment and its results, make and test hypothesis or design an experiment and finally perform them. Beside, these some physics experiments in secondary level are very difficult to be performed due to the time consuming, being harmful and expensive, deficiency of laboratory equipments, not representing the related concept or event precisely, teacher’s anxiety about the complexity of the curriculum. In hopes of improving student learning, research questionnaires have been administered to both physics students and teachers which will help elicit information on the state of physics laboratories in secondary schools and their influence on the students’ achievement.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Use of Laboratory Facilities and Senior Secondary School Physics Student Performance in WAEC Examination in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed the common observation shows that secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State have varied problems associated with their physics laboratories. Some having only one multipurpose science laboratory for all the science subjects others do not have well equipped laboratories. The implication of this is that many students seem not to be exposed to practical work in physics which is core subject in secondary school science curriculum.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine Use of Laboratory Facilities and Senior Secondary School Physics Student Performance in WAEC Examination in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To investigate the availability of physics laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools;
2. To ascertain the effectiveness of laboratory and resources in the teaching learning of physics in secondary school;
3. To ascertain the relationship between physics laboratory equipment and academic performance of student in WAEC Examination; and
4. To determine the extent of utilizing the available Physics Laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the availability of physics laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools?
• What are the effectiveness of laboratory and resources in the teaching learning of physics in secondary school?
• What is the relationship between physics laboratory equipment and academic performance of student in WAEC Examination?
• How often are these laboratory facilities utilized for the teaching and learning of physics in the area under study?
• What is the extent of utilizing the available Physics Laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0:There are no availability of physics laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area
• H1:There are availability of physics laboratory equipment for the teaching and learning of Physics in senior secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area

Hypothesis Two

• H0:There is no relationship between physics laboratory equipment and academic performance of student in WAEC Examination
• H1:There is a relationship between physics laboratory equipment and academic performance of student in WAEC Examination

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study will provide an insight into the problems associated with laboratory and resources in the teaching learning of physics. This report would be of great benefit for science students, to expose them to physics laboratory equipment.

This study will also be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Use of Laboratory Facilities and Senior Secondary School Physics Student Performance in WAEC Examination in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Organization of the Study

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows:

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.