IMPACT OF GENERATIVE LEARNING MODEL ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CHEMISTRY IN ONITSHA EDUCATION ZONE OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of generative learning model on academic achievement of secondary school students in chemistry in Onitsha education zone. The study adopted a quasi-experimental, design specifically; a non-equivalent control group. A sample of Ninety eight (98) Senior Secondary One (SS1) students was used for the study. 50 students were used in experimental group and 48 students in control group. A total of 98 students (67 males and 31 females) constituted the sample for the study. The instrument used was Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) which was validated by two experts. The reliability coefficient using KudderRichardson formula 20 (KR-20) was 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that students taught chemistry using Generative Learning Model (GLM) instructional strategy had higher mean academic achievement score than students taught using conventional method. There is a significant difference between the mean academic achievement scores of experimental group (GLM) and control group (conventional method) in favour of experimental group with higher mean academic  achievement score. The high academic achievement shown by the experimental group may have been the impact of the exploration and elaboration phases of the generative learning model. These phases are interesting on their own, in the sense that, this phase encourages individual students to explore ideas and apply what they have learnt. The findings of this study reveal that male and female students taught Chemistry with generative learning model instructional strategy have almost equal mean academic achievement scores. The findings also show that there is no significant difference due to gender on chemistry students’ mean academic achievement scores of students taught with GLM. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that Chemistry teachers should incorporate generative learning model as one of the instructional strategy used in teaching concepts in chemistry.