Effect of Metacognitive Teaching Method on Secondary School Students’ Achievement and Interest in Physics in Anambra State

Abstract

Metacognitive teaching method (MTM) has been noted for its effectiveness in enhancing the achievement of science students in subjects like Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology. This study investigated the effect of metacognitive teaching method on achievement and interest of secondary school students in physics. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.  The study adopted a quasi -experimental design. The sample comprised 122 students (72 males and 50 females) senior secondary class one (SS 1) physics students purposively drawn from two co-educational secondary schools in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State.  One of the schools was randomly assigned to experimental group and the other to control group. Two instruments namely: the Physics Achievement Test (PAT) and Physics Interest Scale (PIS) were used to collect data for the study. The instruments were administered once and the reliability index of 0.74 was established on PAT using Kuder Richardson Formula 21 while the reliability of the PIS was established to be 0.83 using Cronbach alpha formula. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the null hypotheses. The results revealed that the MTM had significant effect on students’ achievement and interest in physics. The finding implied that MTM enhances students’ achievement and interest in physics more than the conventional method. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that physics teachers should adopt MTM for teaching physics concepts to secondary school students.