Abstract:
This study was designed to investigate the effects of interaction of teaching methods and study habits on senior secondary school students' achievement and interest in chemistry. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The design for the study was a two-factor pre-test/post-test not equivalent, non-randomized quasi-experimental group design. Two hundred and forty (240) SS II chemistry students from four secondary schools in Ogoja Education zone of Cross River State participated in the study. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the schools used for the study. Intact classes were randomly dram and assigned to two treatment groups and a control group. Students in the experimental groups (A and B) were taught by guided-inquiry and expository methods respectively while those on the control group did not receive any treatment. Three instruments namely the Study Habits Inventory for Chemistry Students (SHICS), Chemistry Interest Scale (CIS) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) were used for data collection. The instruments were validated and the reliability -dents of the SHICS and CIS were 0.82 and 0.91 respectively, while that of the CAT was 0.81 indicating the reliability of the instruments. Mean and standard deviation of scores were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 L level of significance (P>0.05). The results of the study indicated that teaching methods have statistically significant effect on the achievement and interest of students in chemistry. Furthermore, the results also indicated that study habit have significant effect on students' achievement in chemistry but not on their interest in the subject. Although teaching methods and study habits interaction has statistically significant effect on students' achievement in chemistry, on the contrary, it has no significant effect on the students' interest in the subject. Based on these findings, the educational implications were identified and highlighted. It was recommended among others that in the choice of teaching methods, the teacher should take into cognizance the observed study habits of the majority of his learners.
