Effects of Metacognitive and Lecture Instructional Methods on Physics Students’ Achievement in Delta State

This study compared the effects of metacognitive and lecture instructional methods on physics students’ achievement in Delta State. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses. A quasi-experimental design, pre-test, post-test, planned variation design using a 2 x2 factorial design adopted for the study. The population for this study comprised 29,817 Senior School II (SS II) students offering physics in all the public secondary schools in Delta State for the 2023/2024 session. A sample of 282 SS2 students were drawn from six mixed secondary schools in Delta State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the selection of the schools. Data for the study was collected using Physics Achievement Test (PAT) with reliability index of 0.85. Data were analysed using Mean and Standard Deviation statisticst-test and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study are: (i)There was a significant difference in the academic achievement mean scores of physics students taught with metacognitive and lecture instructional methods. (ii)There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores between male and female students taught physics using metacognitive instructional strategy. (iii) There is no significant interaction effect of instructional strategies and sex on students’ academic achievement in physics. Based on the findings, it is concluded that instructional strategy significantly affects students’ academic achievement. It was recommended that physics teachers in secondary schools in Delta State should adopt the metacognitive method as a primary strategy for improving achievement outcomes.