Published Paper Details:

The study compared the achievement of Senior Secondary School Two (SSS2) chemistry students in basic thermodynamic topics between structured inquiry-based instruction and the traditional method of teaching chemistry. One hundred and nine sampled students were randomly selected from six secondary schools, who actively engaged in six weeks of structured inquiry-based instruction and participated in pre-test post-test were samples for the study. The structured inquiry-based instruction was constructed in line with the identified students' learning difficulties in thermodynamics. The inquiry-based instruction featured meaningful engagement in tasks, problem solving, group work, exploration, investigation, questioning, discussion and communication. The test was constructed to determine the students' critical reasoning in application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of basic thermodynamic concepts rather than memorization of the concepts. The test and the structured inquiry-based instruction were validated by two chemistry educators and the test reliability coefficient was highly positive using pre-test post-test technique. The study identified students' learning difficulties in thermodynamic concepts. The result showed that, the structured inquiry-based instruction improved students' achievement in thermodynamic concepts. There was a significant difference in the students' achievement between the traditional method and inquiry-based instruction using paired t-test statistical method in favour of inquiry-instruction. The study recommended provision of learning resources and chemistry teachers' adequate knowledge of learning pedagogy and chemistry contents in implementing well-structured chemistry curriculum.