Effectiveness of Learning Cycle Models on Nigerian Senior Secondary Students’ Anxiety towards Chemistry

Aims: The method of teaching Chemistry in Nigerian classrooms has given it an image of being a subject with a body of abstract ideas, giving room for manifestation of anxiety towards the subject at the secondary school level. It is within this context that this study investigated the impact of 5E and PDEODE Learning Models on students’ anxiety towards senior secondary Chemistry.

Study Design: Quasi experimental pre-test – post-test – control group design was used by the researchers to carry out the study.

Place and Duration of Study: STED department, faculty of education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye and.STED department, faculty of education, Lagos State University, Ojo, South-west, Nigeria, between March 2013 and October 2014.

Methodology: The treatments were at two levels: Learning Cycle models (PDEODE and 5E) and conventional lecture method, which was the control group. The moderating variables were gender (male and female) and cognitive style (field dependent and field independent). Total number of one hundred and eighty eight students (188) obtained from the intact classes of the three selected senior Secondary Schools in South-west Nigeria participated in the study. Chemistry Anxiety Rating Scale (CARS) and Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) were the main instruments used to collect data from students. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze the data collected. Also Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) was used to determine the magnitude of the mean anxiety scores of students exposed to the different treatment conditions.

Results: The results of this study revealed that there was a significant difference (F (2, 175) = 13.659, P < .05) in the post-test mean Chemistry anxiety scores of the students after exposure to the different instructional strategies. The students’ post-test mean Chemistry anxiety scores after exposure to the different instructional strategies varied significantly (F (2, 175) = 3.879, P < .05), between the sampled field dependent and field independent secondary school students. However, no significant main effect of gender and cognitive style on students’ Chemistry anxiety was found. The independent and moderator variables jointly accounted for 40.4% of the variation in their Chemistry anxiety scores.

Conclusion: This study concluded that exposing students to the PDEODE learning model led to reduced anxiety in Chemistry than the 5E learning model and the conventional method. It was therefore recommended that teachers be trained in the use of conceptual change model such as PDEODE learning model in the teaching and learning of Chemistry to reduce Chemistry anxiety. Also, teachers should not discriminate between any possible cognitive styles - gender combinations when using PDEODE strategy in the classroom.