Classroom Management in Physics Class: Does it have any Impact on Public Secondary School Students' Achievement?

Abstract

This study analyzed the impact of classroom management on secondary school students' achievement in physics in los metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria. Secondary school students' achievement in physics has not been satisfactory which could he attributed to the manner in which the teacher-manages the classroom. Quasi-experimental research design of the non-equivalent control group pre-test, post-test type was employed to guide the study. The population of the study consisted of 2,450 senior secondary two (SS II) students offering physics in public co-educational secondary schools in Jos metropolis. The sample Jor the study consisted of 92 SS II students offering physics in intact classes of two public co-educational senior secondary schools obtained from the population of the study. This sample was obtained using purposive sampling technique. Physics Classroom Management Observation Schedule (PC71, 10S) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT) were the instruments used to gather data. Three research questions were raised and two null hypotheses were .formulated for the study. While the research questions were answered using mean, the Hypotheses were tested, at 0.05 level of significance, using 1-tes tfor unrelated samples. Findings of the study revealed that students taught under effective classroom management had higher achievement in physics compared to those taught under ineffective classroom management. Findings also showed that no significant disparity existed in the achievement in physics of male and female students who were taught under effective classroom management. One recommendation was that physics teachers should learn to manage the classroom effectively, since classroom management has been found to be gender-friendly.