Teaching the concept ‘Personal hygiene’ through project-based learning at Form One Combined Science Level

Author

Mandizvidza, Z. Edson

Title

Teaching the concept ‘Personal hygiene’ through project-based learning at Form One Combined Science Level

Abstract

In developing countries especially in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular project-based learning approach is in its infancy stage because teachers are used to the lecture method. There is dearth of information on the application of PBL at secondary school level in combined science since most studies done in Zimbabwe are on tertiary institutions and learning areas like History. Test scores of Form One learners in the topic Personal Hygiene were very low having an average \ mark of 45 percent as compared to other topics with 50 percent average mark. Lecture method is currently employed in teaching Personal Hygiene at Form One. The study aims to investigate the impact of Project Based Learning (PBL) on learners’ achievement on the topic personal hygiene at Form One. A quasi-experimental research design in the form of non-equivalent control group was used in the study. The target population of the study was 90 Form One learners. Form One Orange class was used as experimental group and Form One Green class was the control group. All learners wrote the pre-test. After the pre-test, the experimental group was taught the topic Personal Hygiene using Project Based Learning. The control was taught the same taught through traditional method. Post-test was written after teaching the topic Personal Hygiene using different teaching methods as stated above. In determining the sample the researcher used the already existing Form One classes. The researcher used pre-test and post-test as the research instruments. Data obtained was coded and analysed in SPSS version 29 for windows at 95% confidence interval. Results showed that PBL improve learners’ performance as evidenced by 69.86 percent mean of experimental group on post-test as compared to 48.15 percent of the control group. Furthermore the P value of 0.000 was smaller than the Chi-square value of 0.031 hence rejecting the hypothesis that Project-Based Learning has no impact on learners’ academic performance. The study recommends that teachers should use Project Based Learning in teaching personal hygiene at Form One since the teaching method improves learners’ performance.

Date

2023

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

Personal hygiene

Project-based learning

Combined Science Learning

Form one

Supervisor

Dr. Dziva, D.