TSPCK-Based instruction and academic achievement of grade 11 students on chemical kinetics and equilibrium

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge-based instruction on grade 11 students’ achievement in chemical kinetics and equilibrium. A quasi-experimental research design with a 4 × 2 * 3 pre-test and post-test control group was employed on Grade 11 chemistry students in Addis Ababa administrative city, Ethiopia. Each treatment was assigned to four schools at random. The data collection instrument was the chemistry achievement test and the instrument was piloted with 61 students in a different school than the intervention schools. The reliability coefficient of the chemistry achievement test was calculated to be 0.79 after piloting and using Kuder-Richardson Formula 20. Data was gathered and analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The study found that TSPCK-based instruction significantly improved high school students’ achievement in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts. Students exposed to the conceptual teaching strategy instructional mode performed better academically than those in representation-based, curricular saliency-based and conventional groups. However, the interaction between the type of interaction with gender and achiever levels was insignificant. Female students in chemistry who were exposed to topic-specific PCK-based instructional modes showed greater mean and normalized learning gains than their male counterparts in all groups. This resulted in the female students, intervention groups, and achiever levels being enhanced by 19%, 21.3%, and 15% average normalized learning gains, respectively, in chemical kinetics and equilibrium. Therefore, it is recommended that teaching chemical kinetics and equilibrium using topic-specific PCK-based instructional modes is the preferred effective teaching strategy to enhance achievement of students.

Keywords:

• chemical kinetics
• conceptual teaching strategy
• curricular saliency
• equilibrium
• normalized learning gains, representation
• topic specific-PCK

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The study investigates the effect of topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on grade 11 students’ academic progress in challenging chemistry topics such as chemical kinetics and equilibrium. The study demonstrated that TSPCK-based instruction significantly increased the academic achievement of grade 11 students in Addis Ababa compared to conventional teaching using a quasi-experimental research design. However, there was no interaction between the types of instruction with gender or achiever levels. The study adds to the body of knowledge by moving the emphasis from PCK as a teacher framework to an instructional technique for measuring academic accomplishment as student learning outcomes. It also advises that the Ethiopian educational system explore adopting constructivist TSPCK instructional methodologies into the school chemistry curriculum.

1. Introduction

Education is important for producing skilled human power that supports economic progress and addresses significant community challenges (Ozturk, 2008). Furthermore, in order to graduate with high academic standing, students must devote a large amount of time to their studies. A growing number of students commit readmission, indicating that they did not perform well in their academics, and the trend of graduating students is not equal to the growth of enrolled students (Yigermal, 2017).

The Ethiopian government has conducted General Education Quality Improvement Package programs to enhance educational quality and raise the number of graduates in science, technology, and innovation in order to sustain the country and reach the status of middle-developed nation. These programs have had a favorable impact on academic achievement (MOE, 2004). Ethiopia’s recent education reforms have recommended changes to the school curriculum, manner of delivery, teacher education programs, and evaluation systems. According to the Ministry of Education (MOE, 2004), the quality of the teaching-learning process in Ethiopian schools is quite low. The academic accomplishment of pupils judged by the mean score of each of the five subjects (namely English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics) in the national learning assessment of grade 10 and 12 students was found to be below the minimum required (50%) achievement level established by Ethiopia’s education and training policy. The nationwide mean score (the average of what pupils scored in five subjects) for grade 10 was just 35% and 47.8% for grade 12 respectively (Gebrekidan, 2010). As a result, the Ethiopian general secondary school leaving examination result in 2009 and 2010 shows that 24.76% and 12.12% of grade 10 students were promoted to preparatory schools in the Ilu Abba Bora zone (Beyessa, 2014; OEB, 2012). This result indicated that the achievement of grade 10 students was declined from time to time.

According to earlier research findings, effective teaching is crucial for students’ success in learning (Muijs et al., 2014; Pellegrino et al., 2016; Teig et al., 2018). It appears to be especially crucial in developing nations of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where a large number of children lack access to additional learning opportunities outside of the classroom. In order to raise overall learning outcomes, there are lots of debates on raising learning outcomes. Emerging research, however, emphasizes the necessity of addressing learning disparities through instruction that includes approaches customized to the learner’s contextual background and unique traits. More learning opportunity for students will be created when strategies of teaching/learning focus on the context of developing countries like SSA countries (Gruijters & Behrman, 2020). In order to further strengthen this, Atlay et al. (2019) present evidence that certain teaching strategies may unintentionally enhance academic achievement of the students. Therefore, it is vital to look into account that how students are impacted by teaching quality. Determining whether schools and educational programs have the capacity to (re)produce, worsen, or lessen through the instruction they provide can also benefit from such an analysis (Downey & Condron, 2016; Gruijters & Behrman, 2020).

There is a body of research on the relationships between students’ learning outcomes in both developed and developing nations (Azigwe et al., 2016). Few researches, however, have examined how teaching contributes to or exacerbates learning disparities among students’ prior knowledge and backgrounds. In addition, industrialized nations constitute the focus of the majority of studies on the subject areas (Atlay et al., 2019; Bellens et al., 2019). In SSA, few studies have examined how educational methods affect learning (Glewwe & Muralidharan, 2016). Because contexts and working conditions differ across industrialized and developing nations which showed that many SSA nations, for example, allow for big class sizes, but this is not always the case in developed countries.

According to the literature, teaching quality is crucial for improved learning outcomes in Ethiopia (Mijena, 2013). Through their instructional procedures and strategies, teachers lead, manage, and promote learning. Effective teaching, instructional quality, and good teaching practices are all terms used to describe teaching quality (Scherer et al., 2016). Quality teaching frequently entails instructional approaches that are appropriate for the learners’ requirements, as well as teaching behaviors and procedures that encourage higher student accomplishment (Pozas et al., 2020). It could be learner-centered, for example, and include things like creating a suitable environment for children to learn efficiently, modifying the teaching approaches to student learning styles, and caring for student learning needs (Valiandes, 2015).

There is evidence that the quality of teaching influences student learning results like academic achievement, conceptual understanding, and problem-solving skills. According to Kunter et al. (2013), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), self-regulation skills, and excitement determine teaching quality. The study goes on to show that the quality of teaching is a substantial predictor of student achievement. Wilden et al. (2020) investigated the relationship between teaching quality and student second language proficiency and discovered that good teaching quality (supportive climate) is connected to a higher degree of achieving proficiency. Similarly, Økland (2012) revealed that when students are actively involved in the learning process and shaping the learning environment, they perform better in their academic performance.

Likewise, teachers are expected to develop PCK on science topics which help them to develop sound skills and knowledge required for the pedagogical transformation of content knowledge (CK) into the type that students pay attention to and comprehend (Rollnick & Mavhunga, 2016). Pedagogical transformation of CK is regarded as a PCK construct localized at a topic level and is a new version of PCK called topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) (Mavhunga, 2012). TSPCK is further described as the competence to transform knowledge of a topic for the purpose of teaching. TSPCK differs from generic teacher’s PCK in that it focuses on specialized topic knowledge and strategies for teaching students in the simplest possible manner. As a result, TSPCK is the knowledge necessary for transforming CK on a specific topic into teachable form through the use of pedagogical reasoning (Shulman, 1987). The ideas behind the growth of a topic are founded on the pedagogical reasoning of concepts, with an emphasis on pedagogical transformation (Shulman, 1987).

Most of the studies on the area of PCK shifted their view at the topic level and adopted the notion as a product of the transformation of CK through five components (Mavhunga, 2014). These components are learners’ prior knowledge, curricular saliency (CSA) and what is difficult or easy for them to learn, representations (REPs) and conceptual teaching strategies (CTS). The components help teachers to think about the content for teaching purposes and therefore to transform it. Among the five TSPCK components, CSA, REPs, and CTS were employed on the chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts for intervention in this study. The other two TSPCK knowledge components were already identified by Proksa et al. (2018) for both chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium and used them as distractors in chemistry achievement test.

The knowledge construction of specific topic is largely influenced by the interaction of the five TSPCK components (Park & Chen, 2012). In the case of this study the “learner’s prior knowledge and what is difficult or easy to teach” were used without intervention. Teachers need to acquire each knowledge component as well as their combined, interactive use in formulating explanations and responses to questions about teaching a specific topic (Mavhunga & Rollnick, 2013). Therefore, remodeling content information could be a central component of designing TSPCK-based instruction to enhance learning outcome like academic achievement for students at preparatory schools of Addis Ababa administrative city.

Some studies have also found a link between teaching quality and student learning outcomes such as conceptual understanding and achievement. For instance, Azigwe et al. (2016) used the dynamic model of educational efficacy to demonstrate that teaching quality is related to student learning outcomes in Ghana. Similarly, Ngware et al. (2015) demonstrated that instructional quality explains student math and science achievement in Kenya. Despite promising results, the majority of information on teacher quality and student learning outcomes comes from developed nations. For instance the study that has been done in Dutch uses data on twin pairs that attended the same school but were exogenously assigned to different classrooms to investigate the causal relationship between classroom quality and student success. It concludes that teacher experience increases student test performance across the board, with the effect being greatest in the lower grades. Increased teacher experience is important for career advancement, and its implications for other classroom quality indicators are strong (Gerritsen et al., 2014). According to Glewwe and Muralidharan (2016), there is no evidence on how educational quality affects students’ learning outcomes in SSA. However, there is evidence on the fact that effective teaching may improve student learning outcomes in such a scenario (Araujo et al., 2016; Azam & Kingdon, 2015).

According to several studies, not all student groups will experience an increase in academic accomplishment as a result of teaching quality (Blömeke et al., 2016; Wilden & Porsch, 2019). Among them, there is a modest but growing body of study looking at how teaching quality affects student learning outcomes differently depending on, gender, achiever level and type of instruction in teaching strategies. For instance, Caro et al. (2016) showed that effective classroom management techniques are linked to students’ math and science achievement. They also demonstrate that these teaching techniques are more effective with students from developing countries.

Because of teachers lack of threefold representations in their teaching and chemistry required higher mathematical concepts, chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium topics are difficult to teach and learn at any level of education (Çalik & Ayas, 2005; Chairam et al., 2009; Coll et al., 2010). Traditional teaching methods (Justi, 2002), a lack of representations, problems with mathematical competency (Teo et al., 2014), and insufficient teacher training (Johnstone, 2009) are all contributing factors to the difficulty level of physical chemistry topics and its low achievement.

Ethiopia’s third and sixth national learning assessments (NLA), achievement results in chemistry for students in grades 10 and 12 were lower than the cut-off mark (50%), with 34.59% for grade 10 and 43.69% for grade 12. This shows that teaching chemistry in grades 10 and 12 is challenging, which warrants more investigation (NEAEA, 2017). These documents (NEAEA, 2017, 2020) indicated that low achievement result is linked to teaching method used, though it is not the only reason.

According to the third NLA, 75.8% of Ethiopian students in grade 10 received basic or below scores, 21.1% received basic scores, 2% received fluent scores, and 1.1% received advanced scores. Due to the difficulty of the topic, secondary school students underperformed, with none of the grade 12 students achieving an advanced level. In comparison to chemistry domains, chemical reaction (31.32%) and atomic structure (29.30%), organic chemistry (37.04%), substances (36.42%), and substance structure (35.98%) performed better, indicating the need for advanced learning strategies in these topics (NEAEA, 2017). The most effective instructional techniques are those that are based on TSPCK.

This study looked at how gender, achiever level, and method of teaching all affected the academic accomplishment of Grade 11 students in the topics of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium. Based on the student’s gender, achiever level and method of instruction, it was discovered that TSPCK-based instruction hoped to have a favorable effect on Grade 11 students’ academic accomplishment in chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium concepts. To the best of this researcher’s knowledge, studies which consider TSPCK-based instructional strategy in chemistry to investigate conceptual understanding and achievement are rare. There is scarcity of research conducted on the impact of TSPCK-based instruction on students’ academic achievement in learning chemistry. Furthermore, there was debate about whether teacher PCK/TSPCK framework had a significant impact on students’ outcomes (achievement, conceptual understanding, motivation and so on) when learning chemistry concepts. Thus, this study focused on the effect of TSPCK-based instruction on achievement of grade 11 students in relation to kinetics and equilibrium concepts in the administrative city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

2. Objective of the study and Research Questions

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of TSPCK-based instructional approach on achievement of Grade 11 students in kinetics and equilibrium concepts. In connection to this main purpose, the study investigated the following research questions:

1. Is there a difference between intervention and comparison groups on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

2. Is there an interaction between groups and gender on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

3. Is there an interaction between groups and achiever levels on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

4. Which TSPCK-based instruction enhanced the mean gains and learning gains in terms of gender and achiever level on achievement when students are exposed to intervention?

3. Methodology

The study adopted a 4 × 2 × 3 pre-test and post-test control group quasi-experimental design type and was designed to investigate TSPCK-based instructional modes in chemistry at secondary schools of Addis Ababa administrative city, Ethiopia. Addis Ababa city administration has lately been clustered into 11 sub cities. In this connection, target population of this study was grade 11 students enrolled in Addis Ababa city administration during 2021/2022 academic/school year. The study employed multistage sampling techniques. In the first stage, simple random selection was used to select one of eleven sub-cities in Addis Ababa city administration. As a result, the Yeka sub city was chosen at random. Second, secondary schools in the Yeka sub-city were chosen using a whole/comprehensive sampling technique. According to information collected from the Yeka education office, there are four secondary schools in the sub-city, and all of them are included in this study. Third, one section was chosen from each secondary school in the Yeka sub-city. One section was chosen from each school purposively by considering teachers’ teaching experience and qualification. Four intact classes were made part of the study. A total of 159 students from these classes were included in the study. Four groups were assigned for this study and three were assigned to TSPCK-based (curricular saliency-based group (CSA), one assigned to the Representation-based group (REPs), one assigned to conceptual teaching strategy-based group (CTS)) and one conventional method (CM). The response instrument was the “Chemistry achievement test” (CAT). CAT was designed to assess grade 11 students’ achievement in kinetics and equilibrium concepts. It was developed by the researcher. The instrument was piloted to validate the items using the Kuder-Richardson formula 20. Its reliability coefficient was 0.79 which in acceptable range. Content validity of CAT was ensured by incorporating ideas of two supervisors and secondary school chemistry teachers. Three instruction manuals, which were stimulus instruments, were produced. The first was the CSA-based instruction manual; the second was the REPs-based instructional manual; the third CTS-based instructional manual, while the fourth was the conventional chemistry instruction manual. The CSA-based instruction manual contains the main topics in chemical kinetics (rate of chemical reaction, theories of rate of reaction, factors affecting rate of reaction, rate law and order of reaction and reaction mechanism) and chemical equilibrium (dynamic equilibrium, equilibrium expression and constant, factors affecting chemical equilibrium and Le Chatlier’s principle), identifying big ideas, subordinate concepts and sequencing them and implement on conventional method of teaching on identified difficult topics, while the REPs-based instruction manual classify the chemical kinetics and equilibrium topics in to macro, micro and symbolic level by using graphs, video animation and chemical symbols and mathematical formulas each of the topics being used for teaching. The CTS-based instructional manual used ed-puzzle learning platform on identified complex chemistry topics by using selected video animations with interactive questions in between teaching learning process.

The exposure of the students to these types of instruction took 9 weeks. The first week was used to train the teachers and for the administration of the pre-test. The remaining 8 weeks were used to teach students, after which the students were given a post-test. Data collected were subjected to analysis using relevant statistical tools according to the research questions. The study took 8 weeks, in which chemistry teachers for each of the schools were trained on how to use the instruction manuals based on each treatment assigned to them. The CAT was pretested to each group before the application of the treatments. After the groups were exposed to treatments, a post-test was administered to the students. After the assumptions were checked, the researcher used descriptive statistics and parametric tests (Analysis of variance (one way-ANOVA or two-way-ANOVA) with Game-Howell post hoc to analyze and interpret the collected data. For this purpose, statistical analysis SPSS version 20 was used. Significance levels were tested at a 0.05 level of significance.

4. Result and interpretation

Chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium concepts were both included in the study’s findings. The achievement results of students were examined using descriptive and inferential statistics in terms of groups, gender, and achiever levels.

5. Achievement Result of Grade 11 students in terms of groups, gender and achiever levels

RQ1: Is there a difference between intervention and comparison groups on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

Before examining the effect of TSPCK-based instruction on grade 11 students’ achievement in kinetics and equilibrium concepts in this study, an attempt was made to ensure equivalence of groups. For this purpose, a one-way ANOVA was performed on the Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) pre-test.

Table 1 depicts that the pre-test achievement scores students on chemical kinetics and equilibrium based on their groups before intervention. The information obtained from the ANOVA table showed that groups and gender were not statistically significant on the pre-test achievement scores as follows: F (3.155) = 1.93, p = .128. This demonstrated that the concepts of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium were understood at the same level across all groups.

Table 1. ANOVA results for pre-CAT with respect to groups

Dependent variable	Groups	subject	SS	df	MS	F	Sig.
Pre-test achievement	Types of instruction	Between Groups	883.23	3	294.41	1.93	.128
		Within Groups	23693.64	155	152.86
		Total	24576.87	158

The descriptive statistics and test of homogeneity of variances between intervention and comparison groups on post-test achievement scores are shown in Table 2. The average achievement score for CSA (M = 54.73, SD = 14.59), REPs (M = 61.56, SD = 15.02), CTS (M = 62.66, SD = 16.92), and CM (M = 47.06, SD = 11.01). This means that the intervention groups’ mean post-test achievement scores were greater than the comparison groups’. The Levene statistic gives a test of variance homogeneity to examine if the variances of the four groups (CSA, REPs, CTS, and CM) are statistically significant (p = .009). This means that the assumption of equal variances has been violated.

Table 2. Descriptive statistic and homogeneity of variance between the groups on the post-test of achievement

DV	Groups	N	M	SD	Homogeneity of variances
					Levene Statistic	df1	df2	Sig.
Achievement	CSA	38	54.73	14.59	3.996	3	155	.009
	REPs	36	61.56	15.02
	CTS	35	62.66	16.92
	CM	50	47.06	11.01
	Total	159	55.61	15.54

The post-test achievement scores on the concepts of chemical kinetics and equilibrium are shown in Table 3 above as a one-way ANOVA result. The post-test mean score was significant, pursuant to a one-way ANOVA (F (3.155) = 11.004, p = .000). On kinetics and equilibrium concepts, the performance of grade 11 students in the intervention and comparison groups was statistically significant. The statistics showed that 0.159 was the partial eta square value. This suggests that the TSPCK-based instruction raised the students’ understanding of chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts by 16%. Additionally, because the Levene test was significant, a post hoc analysis of Games-Howell multiple comparisons was conducted to determine differences between groups.

Table 3. ANOVA results of achievement of post-test scores between the groups

DV	Categories	SS	df	MS	F	Sig.	Ƞ^2
	Between Groups	6695.76	3	2231.92	11.004	.000	.159
Achievement	Within Groups	31438.62	155	202.83
	Total	38134.38	158

Table 4 illustrates the achievement scores of grade 11 students on the kinetics and chemical equilibrium concepts using the Games-Howell multiple comparison test, which we use for variables that have unequal variables. A statistically significant difference was found in the chemistry achievement among the four groups: F (3,155) = 11.004, p = .000. Table 3 shows the mean for chemistry achievement for curricular saliency-based instruction (54.73), representation-based instruction (61.56), conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction (62.66), and conventional method (47.06). A post hoc Games-Howell multiple comparison test indicated that the chemistry achievement of the CSA and CM groups was statistically significant (p = .042, d = .599), REPs and CM were statistically significant (p = .000, d = 1.114), CTS and CM were statistically significant (p = .000, d = 1.117), and CTS and CSA groups were statistically significant (p = .042, d = .503) with their post-test scores. According to Gignac and Szodorai (2016), the d-values revealed that a much larger effect was observed between representation-based instruction and conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction with the conventional method of teaching. Furthermore, a medium-sized effect was observed between CSA and CM and CTS and CSA-based instructional approaches. As a result, CTS and REPs-based teaching techniques had a substantial impact on the achievement of the post-test scores of grade 11 students’ understanding of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium concepts. The eta squared (ƞ² =.159) values showed that the influence of TSPCK-based instruction has a smaller effect size in addition to the d-values between subject and effect. This suggests that following intervention, student achievement improved by 16% using TSPCK.

Table 4. Games-Howell multiple comparison among the groups on the post-test

DV	(I) Groups	(J) Groups	MD (I-J)	SE	Sig.	95% CI
						LBUB
Achievement	CSA	REPs	−6.83	3.44	.204	−15.89	2.23
		CTS	−7.93	3.71	.152	−17.71	1.85
		CM	7.67*	2.83	.042	.201	15.13
	REPs	CSA	6.83	3.44	.204	−2.23	15.89
		CTS	−1.10	3.80	.992	−11.11	8.91
		CM	14.50*	2.95	.000	6.71	22.28
	CTS	CSA	7.93	3.71	.152	−1.85	17.71
		REPs	1.10	3.80	.992	−8.91	11.11
		CM	15.60*	3.26	.000	6.96	24.23
	CM	CSA	−7.67*	2.83	.042	−15.13	−.201
		REPs	−14.50*	2.95	.000	−22.28	−6.71
		CTS	−15.60*	3.25	.000	−24.23	−6.96

* The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.

Table 5 shows the average improvement and academic gains in the concepts of kinetics and chemical equilibrium for the intervention and comparison groups. When compared to curricular saliency-based instruction and comparison groups, representation-based instruction and conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction had greater mean gains and learning gains. This demonstrated that conceptual teaching strategies-based instruction, followed by representation-based education, improved the academic success of grade 11 pupils in the concepts of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium. However, according to their post-test results, the curricular saliency-based instructions surpass the comparison group in terms of academic achievement. TSPCK-based instruction improved the academic success of grade 11 students in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts after the researcher conducted an intervention with the treatment groups.

Table 5. Mean gain and learning gain of academic achievement of intervention and comparison groups in the pre-test and post-test scores

DV	Groups	N	M-Pre-CU	M-post-CU	M-gain	L-Gain
Achievement	CSA	38	45.70	54.73	9.03	0.17
	REPs	36	50.83	61.56	10.73	0.22
	CTS	35	50.19	62.66	12.47	0.25
	CM	50	45.86	47.06	1.20	0.02
	Average	159	48.15	56.50	8.36	0.16

The average increase and normalized learning gains for certain chemical kinetics and equilibrium topics for grade 11 students are shown in Figure 1. The conventional teaching approach (M-gain = 1.2, L-gain = 2%), REPs-based instruction (M-gain = 10.73, L-gain = 22%), CSA-based instruction (M-gain = 9.03, L-gain = 17%), and CTS-based instruction (M-gain = 12.47, L-gain = 25%) all had achievement mean scores. In terms of mean gain and learning gain, the conceptual teaching approach group beat the representation-based group, which was followed by the curriculum saliency-based instruction group and the comparison group. This result suggests that conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction, followed by representation-based instruction, was the most effective instructional technique for chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium. Curriculum saliency-based education enhanced the academic achievement of grade 11 students when compared to the comparison group. The impact size of all intervention groups and comparisons in achievement were in the low range (Hake, 2015). In general, CTS-based instruction, REPs-based instruction, CSA-based instruction, and conventional methods of instruction enhanced grade 11 students’ academic success by 25%, 22%, 17%, and 2%, respectively. As a consequence, CTS-based training outperformed the two intervention groups and the comparison group in terms of academic performance on the concepts of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium.

Figure 1. Mean gain and learning gains of intervention and comparison groups on achievement.

5.1. Mean difference between male and female students

RQ2:

Is there an interaction between groups and gender on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

Table 6 shows the mean scores of students’ achievement on chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts based on their gender following interventions. The results showed that male students had lower mean scores across all treatment groups than female students. Gignac and Szodorai (2016) defined the effect size of men and women as d > 1.00 (far greater impact), d values between .80 and 1.0 (larger effect), d values between .50 and.80 (medium effect), and d values less than .20 (lower effect size). Gender effect sizes in the CSA, REPs, CTS and CM were d = .169, d = .414, d = .365 and d = .284 correspondingly. This found that gender had a reduced influence on the style of instruction in the CSA group and had a medium effect on both representation-based and conceptual teaching techniques. In comparison, representation-based instruction, followed by conceptual teaching techniques, favors gender in teaching chemical kinetics and equilibrium. According to the mean post-test results, female students had higher mean scores than male students in all intervention and comparison groups. As a consequence, female students who get representation-based education outperform male students who receive conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction in the specified chemical concepts.

Table 6. Descriptive statistics

Groups	Gender	Mean	SD	N	d
CSA	Male	53.500	15.4463	19	.169
	Female	55.958	13.9806	19
REPs	Male	58.106	15.1001	16	.414
	Female	64.325	14.7377	20
CTS	Male	59.363	17.2084	16	.365
	Female	65.437	16.6232	19
CM	Male	45.745	10.7881	29	.284
	Female	48.886	11.3190	21

R Squared = .198 (Adjusted R Squared = .160), Dependent Variable: Post achievement

Table 7 reveals the interaction between the type of instruction carried out and the main effect of gender on chemistry achievement after intervention. The data revealed that gender had no significant (F (1, 151) = 3.81, p = 0.053, ƞ2=.025) effect after the type of instruction was employed. According to Gignac and Szodorai (2016), the eta squared for sex was around.025, indicating gender had a very small effect on the post-test achievement scores of identified chemistry topics. Furthermore, the type of instruction had a statistically significant (F (3, 151) = 10.04, p = .000, ƞ2=.166) main influence on chemistry achievement. The eta squared for instruction type was around 0.166, indicating a smaller effect. This means that the type of instruction (TSPCK-based instruction) increased grade 11 students’ specified chemistry achievement by 16.6%.

Table 7. Tests of between-subjects effects of gender on post-test score achievement

Source	SS	df	MS	F	Sig.	Ƞ^2
Corrected Model	7537.55	7	1076.79	5.31	.000	.198
Intercept	490820.63	1	490820.63	2422.27	.000	.941
Types of instruction	6100.42	3	2033.47	10.04	.000	.166
Gender	771.38	1	771.38	3.81	.053	.025
Type of instruction * Gender	108.65	3	36.22	.179	.911	.004
Error	30596.83	151	202.63
Total	529860.80	159
Corrected Total	38134.380	158

On post-test chemical performance scores, there was no significant interaction between gender and kind of instruction (F (3,151) =.179, p = .911, ƞ²=.004). This implies that the interaction (gender and instruction type) is insignificant. This result indicated that there was no correlation between the gender of the students and the type of instruction employed in the classroom. As a consequence, TSPCK-based instruction gave both male and female grade 11 pupils in Addis Ababa’s administrative city similar opportunities to learn both chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts. This result revealed that the TSPCK-based instruction had not been gender-sensitive to enhance the academic achievement on the specific topics under consideration.

RQ3: Is there an interaction between groups and achiever levels on achievement after intervention in chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts?

Table 8 shows how the mean post-test achievement scores and effect sizes of grade 11 students were explained based on their achiever levels. The mean post-test scores of all TSPCK-based instruction groups of achiever-level students were higher after treatment than the comparison group. The results in Table 8 also demonstrated that the mean scores of students at the medium achiever level were higher than those of students at the low and high achiever levels on certain chemical topics. Gignac and Szodorai (2016) found that the d-value of CSA-based teaching between low and medium had a larger effect size, but the d-values of REPs-based instruction between low and medium, as well as low and high achiever levels, had a very big or considerable effect size. Furthermore, the CTS-based instruction d-values between high and medium, as well as high and low, have a very substantial size influence. This suggests that TSPCK-based training on chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts favored students with a medium level of achievement.

Table 8. Descriptive statistics

Groups	Achiever levels	Mean	SD	N	d	Effect size
CSA	Low achiever	53.32	16.66	11	.811(L-M)	large
	Medium achiever	55.56	14.63	18
	High achiever	54.80	13.34	9
REPs	Low achiever	64.04	19.70	9	1.22(L-M)	Very large
	Medium achiever	60.75	13.67	22	.302(L-H)	Medium
	High achiever	60.66	14.00	5
CTS	Low achiever	52.50	19.14	4	3.32(M-L)	Very large
	Medium achiever	64.07	16.77	18	2.88(H-L)	Very large
	High achiever	63.84	16.81	13
CM	Low achiever	45.27	11.32	12	3.71(H-M)	Very large
	Medium achiever	45.64	11.18	26	.64(H-L)	Medium
	High achiever	51.94	9.68	12

The influence of different forms of teaching and achiever levels on the achievement of grade 11 students in chemical kinetics and equilibrium is shown in Table 9. The results showed that the type of teaching instruction was statistically significant (F (3, 147) = 6.711, p = .000, ƞ² =.120) but not the students’ achiever level (F (2, 147) =.651, p = .523, ƞ² =.009). Gignac and Szodorai (2016) found that the eta squared for achiever levels was approximately -009, indicating a very smaller influence. The eta squared for value for type of instruction on achiever level was also 0.120, indicating a little influence. This demonstrated that the method of instruction was responsible for a 12% improvement in the academic performance of grade 11 students on the specified chemical topics. There was no significant interaction between achiever levels and the type of teaching instruction on post-test chemical achievement scores (F (6,147) =.587, p = .741). This suggests that the relationship between achiever levels and instruction type is insignificant. This study demonstrated that there was no correlation between student achievement levels and the type of instruction employed in the classroom. As a result of TSPCK-based instruction, grade 11 students in Addis Ababa administrative city with low, medium, or high success levels enjoyed equitable chances in learning chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts. This study suggested that TSPCK-based instruction enhanced the academic achievement of all the three achiever levels (low, medium and high) almost in same rates in the specific topics under consideration. This recommended that there will be a need of differentiation instructional approach in addition to TSPCK-based instruction whether achiever levels interaction is significant with the type of instruction.

RQ4:

Which TSPCK-based instruction enhanced the mean gains and normalized learning gains in terms of gender and achiever level on achievement when students are exposed to intervention?

Table 9. Interaction effect between types of instruction and achiever levels on achievement

Source	SS	df	MS	F	Sig.	Ƞ^2
Corrected Model	7647.420	11	695.22	3.352	.000	.201
Intercept	376202.07	1	376202.07	1813.95	.000	.925
Type of instruction	4175.41	3	1391.80	6.711	.000	.120
Achiever level	269.88	2	134.94	.651	.523	.009
Type of instruction* Ach. level	729.84	6	121.64	.587	.741	.023
Error	30486.96	147	207.39
Total	529860.80	159
Corrected Total	38134.38	158

Table 10 shows the mean and normalized learning gains of grade 11 students in chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium achievement scores depending on gender and achiever level. Male students’ academic success on the two chemistry topics improved by 5.96 (M-gains = 5.96) after adopting TSPCK-based instruction, whereas female students’ academic achievement on chemical kinetics and equilibrium improved by 9.49 (M-gains = 9.39).

Table 10. Mean gain and learning gain of academic achievement of gender and achiever levels in the pre-test and post-test scores

DV	Variable	Category	Pre-Ach	Post-Ach	M-gain	N-L-gain
Achievement	Gender	Male	46.83	52.78	5.96	0.11
		Female	48.99	58.48	9.49	0.19
	Achiever levels	Low	46.29	53.23	6.93	0.13
		Medium	45.75	55.67	9.92	0.18
		High	54.02	57.69	3.67	0.08

This led to an improvement in the mean gains of low achievers (M-gains = 6.93), medium achievers (M-gains = 9.92), and high achievers (M-gains = 3.67) as a result of the adoption of the TSPCK-based instruction. After the introduction of TSPCK-based classroom instruction, low, middle, and high performers all showed improvements in their performance. The mean scores of achiever levels on the concepts of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium increased, according to the data from Table 10. Students with a medium level of achievement did better than those with a low level of achievement. The mean score of the pre-test for the achiever level was statistically significant (p = .002), and as we mentioned in the discussion that came before it, there was a distinct baseline among the achiever levels. The achiever level and the post-test results, however, did not vary significantly (p = .465). This showed that all levels of achievers have an equal opportunity to learn the concepts of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium when learning is based on the TSPCK.

Following the application of TSPCK-based teaching, the normalized learning gains on the gender and achiever levels are shown in Figure 2. The findings showed that when TSPCK-based instruction was implemented, female students’ academic success increased by 0.186 (18.6%) normalized learning gains, while male students’ academic success increased by 0.112 (11.2%). This demonstrated that the instructional methods based on TSPCK improved the academic performance of female students by 18.6%.

Figure 2. Mean gains and normalized learning gains of gender and achiever level on post-test achievement scores.

Academic accomplishment at low, medium, and high achiever levels enhanced by.129 (12.9%), .183 (18.3%), and.037 (3.7%), respectively, when TSPCK-based instruction was implemented. As a consequence, the middle achiever level pupils performed better academically than low and high achiever level students. We infer from earlier comments on the mean gain that the TSPCK-based instruction engaged students in learning chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium without any distinctions. As a result, with the use of teaching strategies based on the TSPCK, all students had an equal opportunity to grasp the fundamentals of chemistry.

6. Discussion of Findings

The findings showed that CTS-based instruction is more successful than REPs-based instruction and CSA-based instruction in teaching difficult chemistry concepts. Students who received CTS-based instruction had the greatest post-test mean scores, followed by those who received REPs-based instruction, CSA-based instruction, and finally the conventional group. As a result, the conceptual teaching strategy-based instructional mode outperformed than both the REPS-based and conventional modes in teaching chemical kinetic and chemical equilibrium concepts. This is consistent with Carless’s (2005) findings that CTS-based learning implementation associated with cognitive enhancement in science students who use computer-assisted lesson preparation. Both REPs-based and CSA-based instructions allow students to conduct investigations more effectively than traditional instruction. Students learned significantly more and faster when they were asked to engage and interact with designed exercises. This was comparable to self-discovery in that whatever was learned in the course could be used efficiently without any assistance. It also enabled pupils to learn with little or no supervision, broadening their breadth of learning and boosting their self-esteem in the topic. As a result of classifying the concept of chemistry into three levels of representations (macro, micro, and symbolic), representation-based instruction improved more effective the academic achievement than conventional instruction in teaching difficult chemistry topics. This result was in agreement with the studies by (Mashami et al., 2014) and Gulacar et al. (2013) that analyzed learning involving the three representations (macro, micro and symbolic) was proven to have a positive impact on the student’s understanding and achievement. Similarly, Husein et al. (2019) and Hermansyah et al. (2019) also supported this study that Computer-based multimedia instruction has been shown to be able to provide better opportunities for students to develop a variety of capability tools such as conceptual understanding. Contrarily, representation based instruction may confuse students to relate the animated concepts with real concepts for those students which were novice for computer utilization (Rollnick & Mavhunga, 2014).

Male students appeared to profit less than their female counterparts from TSPCK-based instruction. This intervention groups investigated more in the mean gain and normalized learning gains as compared to the conventional teaching strategy. TSPCK-based instruction resulted in higher achievement for students in the middle achiever level than for students in the low and high achiever levels. Topic-specific PCK-based instruction provides sufficient resources to empower and improve students’ academic progress. The assignments will be more appealing to students if there are enough chemistry texts, and internet access. This conclusion supports up Rockoff’s (2004) claim that achiever level effects students’ science achievement based on the instructional technique employed to teach the topic. TSPCK-based instructions (CSA, REPS, and CTS) proved more effective than traditional methods in teaching chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts in chemistry. It aided pupils in developing their comprehension of the subject and improving their academic performance. According to the findings, female chemistry students outperformed their male counterparts after being exposed to TSPCK-based instruction. To put it another way, female pupils outperformed academic achievement in their male counterparts in learning chemical kinetics and equilibrium concepts. Academic achievement and critical thinking skills have long been contested, but modern technology advances have altered the learning environment. Female students’ critical thinking skills in physics have been influenced more by sub-microscopic media animation than male students (Mashami & Gunawan, 2018).

Female students with virtual labs are more creative than male students in electricity teaching (Gunawan et al., 2018), and the use of a virtual laboratory in science concept has a favorable influence on student conceptual comprehension capacity and academic accomplishment (Gunawan et al., 2017). This shows that conceptual comprehension and achievement are still worth discussing, particularly when linked to computer-based media and gender. In this study, the notion of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium was used to compare the problem-solving abilities of male and female students. The conceptual understanding and critical thinking abilities of the pupils were significantly improved by the usage of interactive multimedia. Through the use of this deeply ingrained concept, learners became more active and engaged, and learning became more efficient (Manurung & Mihardi, 2018). High-order thinking abilities can be developed through interactive multimedia (Dasilva et al., 2019).

This finding was in contrast to other studies which stated that understanding concepts does not affect student success in conceptual understanding and solving problems (Bodner, 2015). On problems that contain concepts, female students were not confident enough as their male counterparts. For instance, the concept of buffer solutions obtained by interactive multimedia was not as good as that of male students and this was indicated by the stages of problem-solving that were not done optimally. When students are confident in their response, they prefer to check for conceptual correctness (Gulacar et al., 2013). Also, in contrast to this study, interactive multimedia in learning support materials had a greater impact on male students’ achievement than on female students. Male students who are on the edge of their seats are able to learn the material correctly so that the idea of a buffer solution is fully grasped thanks to the combination of video, text, animation, and graphics (Wentworth & Middleton, 2014). Along with the interactive multimedia, three other types of representation-macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic were used to enhance achievement and problem-solving abilities of the students.

This study also found that pupils’ achievement was influenced by their achiever level: The difference in achievement in certain chemical topics between intervention and comparison groups of high school Grade 11 students was considerable, and students in CTS and REPs-based groups had a larger mean gain and normalized learning gain than CSA and comparison group. Even though the TSPCK-based instruction did not significance on the post-test academic performance, it increased the academic performance of low, medium and high achiever by .13, .18 and .08, respectively, with normalized learning gains.

7. Conclusion

The study found that when compared to representation-based, curricular saliency-based and conventional instruction, conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction was the most effective at teaching difficult topics in chemistry, though representation-based instruction was better than curricular saliency-based and conventional instruction. Furthermore, after being exposed to TSPCK-based instruction, female chemistry students benefited more than male students. Students’ achievement in difficult chemistry topics is improved more by conceptual teaching strategy-based and representation-based instruction than by curricular saliency-based conventional instruction. Female and middle-level students benefited the most in utilizing TSPCK-based instruction in terms of academic achievement. Based on the learning gains, TSPCK-based instruction enhances student academic achievement by 25% for CTS-based instruction, 22% for REPs-based instruction, and 17% for CSA-based instruction. Similarly, female and male students’ normalized learning gains improved by 19% and 11%, respectively. Furthermore, learning gains improved academic performance at the low, middle, and high achiever levels by 13%, 18%, and 8%, respectively.

There was no statistically significant interaction between the type of instruction, gender and achiever levels of grade 11 students on the chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium concepts on the post-test scores. This means that both gender and achiever level of the student did not change the achievement of the post-test scores in using TSPCK-based instructions, which favor both achiever level and gender equally.

8. Recommendations

The following recommendations were made from the findings of the study:

1. The government should organize seminars and training for chemistry teachers on the effective design and execution of TSPCK-based instruction in teaching high school chemistry.

2. Male chemistry students should be encouraged to participate more effectively in both conceptual teaching strategies and representation-based instruction, and training on how to build computer-assisted lessons from educational learning platforms should be designed.

3. Conceptual teaching strategy-based instruction, which has the greatest impact on students’ performance in other complex chemistry courses, should be employed frequently in high school.

4. Schools should implement more TSPCK-based instruction to broaden students’ understanding of difficult chemistry topics and assist them in focusing their attention on such topics.

Ethical statements

This research started and finished with ethical issues. The researcher acquired a letter of collaboration from Addis Ababa University’s Department of Science and Mathematics Education, as well as approval from four secondary school principals in the Addis Ababa administrative city. Consent papers were distributed to the grade 11 students and four instructors who expressed their desire to engage in the study willingly. Data confidentiality was prioritized, and the researcher made every effort to minimize bias when collecting and analyzing data. Participants were compensated in order to maximize their learning. The allocated codes to the selected secondary schools were utilized, and no personal identities were divulged in any manner.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2292873

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kassahun Dejene Belayneh

Kassahun Dejene Belayneh is a Chemistry education researcher and educator. He was a physical chemistry lecturer at Kotebe University of Education. He worked on the professional development of elementary and secondary school teachers. He has 23 years teaching and advising experienced in high school, college of teachers’ education and university level in Ethiopia. Now he is a PhD candidate at Addis Ababa University. His research interests are topic-specific PCK-based instruction, conceptual understanding, and motivation in learning Chemistry concepts. His work has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including the Journal of International Letters, Advanced Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Science Education International, and Pedagogical Research. His first two efforts were on waste water filtration through the use of locally manufactured adsorbents. The third project focused on improving conceptual comprehension in specific chemistry areas through TSPCK-based instruction. The fourth project examined the impact of COVID-19 on science education at the college and university levels.