Title:
EVALUATING THE PEDAGOGICAL COMPETENCE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STRATEGIES IN THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AKWA IBOM STATE

Authors:
Dr Patrick J. Uko and Uko, Mary Patrick ( Ph.D), Nigeria

Abstract:
Some science topics in the secondary school curriculum, especially in physics, are often encountered by learners to be difficult as their teachers use didactic approaches in lesson delivery.This often result in poor learners achievement evidenced in their poor outings in public examination. This study was designed to evaluate the pedagogical competence in the application of interdisciplinary strategies in the teaching of selected difficult topics in physics in secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 115 senior secondary one (SS1) students from 6 intact classes as the sample size. A 25-item Physics achievement test developed from the contents taught was used to collect data for the study. The instrument had a face and content validation by three specialists. Kudder-Richardson (K-R20) was used to determine the internal consistency of the test items and a coefficient of 0.89 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings shows that there was a change as students taught using interdisciplinary strategies had higher mean achievement score than their counterpart and that gender had no significant influence on the achievement. Also, there was no interaction between gender and method. It was recommended that interdisciplinary strategies should be integrated into the teaching of difficult concepts in physics for effective teaching and learning and for improved academic achievement.