Effectiveness of Practical Work on Students' Achievement in Science at Secondary Level in Gorkha District Nepal

Abstract

This paper explores the effect of practical work on students' achievement in science at secondary level in Gorkha district, Nepal. The research was carried out using Quasi-Experimental pretest/ posttest research design. For carrying out the research, two schools of Gorkha district were selected purposively. For the collection of data, the researcher developed test items as the main instrument. Items were selected by analyzing difficulty level and discrimination index through pilot study. Then prepared test items were pretested to both schools and responses were checked and scored the result of pretest. The experiment group was taught using practical approach for one term while the control group was taught using the traditional methods. At the end of instructional period, both groups were post-tested with the same set of the test items in each school. The result of pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed at 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 20 for the score of achievement test to find out the significance difference between two mean score of control group and experimental group. This study showed that mean achievement score of students taught by using practical approach resulted higher students achievement score of students in science. This study also revealed that the practical approach is more effective in science teaching at secondary level. So science teachers should be encouraged to incorporate this method in teaching.