The Effect of Dialogic Practical Work on Secondary School Students' Attitudes toward Physics

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of dialogic practical work on students' attitudes toward physics. The sample of the study was 91 grade 11 secondary school students selected randomly from two schools in Bahir Dar town, Ethiopia. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest between groups research design was used. The treatment group participated in dialogic practical work while the comparison group conducted traditional practical work. A 30-item physics attitude questionnaire with Cronbach alpha value of 0.84 was used to collect the data before and after intervention. T-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The result of the study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between treatment and comparison group in favor of the treatment group with no gender differential effects. In addition, the finding showed that the most significant attitude change occurred between the high and low achievement groups. However, no significant difference was observed between the high and medium achievement groups. Dialogic practical work can be used to enhance secondary school students' attitudes toward physics.