Test Types, Students’ Achievement in Senior Secondary School Physics and Eradication of Poverty and Hunger In Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effect of test type on students' achievement in senior secondary school physics. The main thrust of the study was to test the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in achievement in physics among senior secondary school students (male and female) tested on the Extended Essay, Restricted Essay, and Multiple-choice test types. The sample consisted of 102 senior secondary two (SS II) physics students in three randomly selected secondary schools in Akamkpa Urban of Cross River State, Nigeria. The subjects were used in their intact class settings in the three schools. Treatment consisted of presentation of six structured physics lessons of 45 minutes duration per lesson to each intact class for three weeks. Each intact class was exposed to treatment for 270 minutes with lessons on modern physics delivered by one of the researchers to control for extraneous teacher-related factors. The Modern Physics Achievement Test (MPAT), developed by the researchers, was used to obtain pre-test and post-test scores. The pre-test data confirmed homogeneity of the groups. The post-test data were analyzed using the 3 x 2 factorial analysis of variance. The study showed that students significantly achieved better in Multiple-choice test type than in the Restricted essay and the Extended essay test types, irrespective of gender. It was therefore recommended that test packages should in all cases include all forms of test types, especially essay test types for effective evaluation of students' achievement in physics. Such action would ensure quality science education for the eradication of poverty and hunger.