Effects of Scaffolding techniques on Secondary School Physics Students' Academic Achievement in Malumfashi Local Government, Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the Effects of Scaffolding Technique on Secondary School Physics Students’ Academic Achievement in Malumfashi Local Government, Katsina State, Nigeria. Two research hypotheses were raised and tested at 0.5 levels of significance. The study adopted pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design. The population of the study consisted of one thousand and two (1,002) SSII Physics students from which a total of one hundred and twenty three (123) SSII Physics students drawn from two intact classes participated in the study. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control group. A forty (40) items multiple-choice “Physics Achievement Test” (PAT) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by specialist in physics education and psychology and its reliability was established using Spearman Brown’s formula and yielded index of 0.85. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS Version 23 to answer the research questions using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and testing the null hypothesis using Z-test. The findings of the study revealed that students taught using scaffolding technique performed higher than students taught using Lecture method, there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores between male and female physics students taught using scaffolding techniques. On the basis of these findings, the study recommended that, physics teachers should be encouraged to use scaffolding technique in teaching the subject and other science subjects at secondary school because it improves student’ academic achievement for both male and female students.