Rwandan secondary school students' attitudes in learning chemistry: explored with task-based instruction

Area of Science:

• Chemistry Education Research
• Educational Psychology
• Pedagogical Methods

Background:

• Student attitudes significantly influence academic achievement and engagement in science subjects.
• Traditional teacher-centered methods may not effectively foster positive attitudes toward chemistry.
• Task-Based Learning (TBL) offers a student-centered alternative for science instruction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of Task-Based Learning (TBL) on secondary students' attitudes towards learning chemistry.
• To compare the effectiveness of TBL with a teacher-centered approach in shaping chemistry attitudes.
• To analyze specific attitude variables including perceived importance, difficulty, interest, and usefulness.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design was used with 369 Grade 2 secondary students in Rwanda.
• Students were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (TBL) or a control group (teacher-centered).
• A standardized chemistry attitude questionnaire (Cronbach alpha = 0.831) was administered pre- and post-intervention, analyzed using Kruskal Wallis test.

Main Results:

• A statistically significant difference in attitude gain was observed between the TBL and control groups (ꭓ² = 4.118, p < .05).
• Students perceived chemistry's importance more favorably than its difficulty, interest, or usefulness.
• Female students exhibited more positive attitudes than male students, and school location influenced attitudes.

Conclusions:

• Task-Based Learning (TBL) is an effective pedagogical strategy for enhancing students' positive attitudes toward learning chemistry.
• The findings suggest TBL implementation in chemistry classrooms can improve student engagement and perception of the subject.
• Further research could explore TBL's long-term effects and applicability across diverse educational contexts.