Dramatizing Chemical Bonding Concepts towards Correcting Students’ Misconceptions in Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State, Nigeria

Aims: Chemical bonding is a fundamentalconcept which provide essential information for interpretation of chemical reactions and understanding of related concepts in chemistry. This relevance notwithstanding, the general perception of most students is that chemical bonding, as a topic is very difficult to understand. This study therefore, is an attempt to correct students’ misconceptions about chemical bonding in Rivers State, Nigeria using drama teaching strategy, with a view to addressing the issue.

Study Design: Mixed method design was adopted.

Place and Duration of Study: Science Education Department, Faculty of Education, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The study lasted about four months from June to October 2021.

Methodology: The sample comprised 170 SS2 chemistry students. The instruments were Chemical Bonding Diagnostic Test with reliability coefficient of 0.98 and Interview Schedule. Percentages and graphs were used to answer research questions and hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance.

Results: Results of the study revealed a remarkable reduction in the high extents of students’ misconceptions about chemical bonding on teaching with drama strategy while the misconceptions of students taught with lecture method persisted at a high extent; This implies that, drama teaching strategy is useful in correcting students’ misconceptions about chemical bonding while lecture teaching method is not. A significant difference in misconceptions of students taught chemical bonding with drama and those with lecture method was obtained. Also, there was significant gender related difference in students’ misconceptions about chemical bonding.

Conclusion: Drama teaching strategy is effective in correcting students’ misconceptions about chemical bonding and other related concepts. Also, there is gender related difference in misconceptions based on gender.