Effect of Quality of Chemistry Practical Work on Students? Performance in Chemistry in Public Secondary Schools of Machakos and Nairobi Counties in Kenya

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of quality of chemistry practical work on students performance in chemistry in public secondary schools of Machakos and Nairobi counties in Kenya. Quality of chemistry practical work refers to the degree of learner involvement in the practical. The study describes and examines the effect of the quality of practical work implemented by secondary school chemistry teachers. The students performance in chemistry was determined from scores obtained by students in Students Achievement Tests (SATs) done just before and immediately after exposure to different types and amounts of chemistry practical work in the topic under investigation. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as the mean and independent t-test were used to discuss the research findings. The study found that there is a positive relationship between the quality of practical work and learners performance in chemistry. The results of the study indicate that the students had comparable performance in chemistry before treatment, that the quality of practical work had a significant contribution to the post test scores, and that there was a significant difference in performance in the post test between the experimental and control groups. The study recommends that the quality of chemistry practical work exposed to students be improved so as to improve performance in chemistry.