EFFECT OF CONCEPTUAL CHANGE TEACHING STRATEGY ON CHILDREN’S ACQUISITION OF SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDES

Abstract

One of the major objectives for teaching science in Nigeria schools is for pupils to develop scientific thinking/attitudes. However, the traditional method of teaching in most classrooms has been found to be ineffective to achieve this objective. This study therefore investigates the effect of conceptual change teaching strategy on children’s acquisition of scientific attitudes. It adopted the pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental design. 143 primary six pupils from two public primary schools in Ibadan South west Local Government Area of Oyo State were involved on the study. Three self-developed and validated instruments were used for data collection: Scientific Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), Teachers’ Assessment Guide (TAG) and Operational Guide for Instruction (OGI). SAQ had Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.89 while TAG had Intra class correlation coefficient of 0.86. The results revealed that the conceptual change teaching strategy was more effective in improving pupils’ scientific attitude scores than the traditional chalk-and-talk method. This effect was sustained regardless of the pupils’ gender. It was recommended that teachers should use this teaching method in the science class to help pupils develop scientific attitudes.