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ISSN 2641-7987   E-ISSN 2641-7995 

Published by American Center of Science and Education, USA 

 

34 

 

 

Effectiveness of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Teaching Strategy 

on Students’ Performance in Chemistry in Secondary Schools in 

Ondo State, Nigeria 
 

 

Adesoji Olubunmi Omoniyi PhD 

Department of Science education 

Adekunle Ajasin University 

Akugba Akoko, Ondo State, School in Ondo State, Nigeria 

Nigeria. Email: lasojibunmi@gmail.com 

 

Tessy Ese Torru 

University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria 

 

Abstract 

The Study Examined Qualitative Aspect Of “O” Level West African Secondary School Certificate Practical 
Chemistry Syllabus And Identified Reaction Of Metals With Water As One Of The Concepts That Chemistry 

Teachers Avoid To Teach Due To Either Unavailability Of Chemical Regents Or Lack Of Teachers’ Competence 

To Handle The Topic. The Study Therefore Examined The Effectiveness Of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry 

Leaving (POGIL) Strategy On Students’ Performance In Chemistry In Secondary Schools In Ondo State, Nigeria. A 

Pretest, Posttest Control Group Design Was Adopted With POGIL Being the treatment and lecture method as the 

control group. A total of 60 Senior Secondary School chemistry students (SSS 3) were randomly selected from 

Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State Nigeria to constitute the study sample. Two intact classes 

comprising 33 students for POGIL group and 27 students for the lecture method group were taught separately in 

their respective schools. A 1 item instrument tagged Practical Chemistry Achievement Test (CAAT) with reliability 

co-efficient of r=0.78, p<0.05 was used to collect data. The results showed that POGIL was more effective 

( =12.63) than lecture method ( =10.84), t=2.97, p<0.05. The study concluded that POGIL strategy is an effective 

method of teaching practical chemistry concepts in general and the qualitative aspect of practical chemistry in 

particular. 

 

Keywords: Effectiveness, process oriented guided inquiry, students’ performance, qualitative. 

 

1. Introduction  
It has been founded that a discovery-based team environment energizes students and provides instructors with 
instant and constant feedback about what their students understand or misunderstand. This emphasizes that learning 

is not a solitary task of memorizing information, but an interactive process of refining one’s understanding and 

developing one’s skills. 

Also, there is increased expectation that science education should encompass practices that embody the ways of 

doing science and the epistemic practices of the scientific enterprise (Brewer et al, 2011). To this end, there have 

been various research-based instructional practices that have been widely adopted to improve science process skills 

(process oriented Guided Inquiry learning (POGIL), with roots in chemistry but now widely used across range of 

disciplines as a pedagogy that provides opportunities  for students to develop and improve specific process skills 

during science content learning (Moog et al, 2014) POGIL as noted by Douglas & Chiu (2012), was originally 

developed for curriculum in chemistry but presently has had a wider scope in other fields such as Biology and 

Engineering. 
POGIL as a pedagogy, provides an appropriate avenue by using a Learning Cycle based on three phases of inquiry: 

Exploration of a model, Invention and Application. This provides opportunities for students to engage in process 

skills that go above and beyond content and emphasizes the process of integrating knowledge. Moog et al 

specifically describes seven process skills that can be developed in a POGIL learning environment when using a 

well-designed POGIL activity: Communication, team working,  management, information processing, critical 

thinking, problem solving, and assessment (specifically self-assessment). That is, POGIL materials are designed to 

develop transferable skills in the content to be learned, with one or two process skill targets in a well-designed 



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POGIL activities. To realize these, students in a POGIL classroom take up individual roles with their small group 

communities. POGIL therefore provides an environment in which students encounter scientific practices and 

processes as normal part of their classroom activities.  

It appears that many students avoid questions that involved qualitative analysis aspect of the West African School 

Certificate Practical Examination, and where such questions were attempted, candidates performed poorly as 

reflected in table I 
 

Table I: Trends of Performance in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in the West African Senior School Certificate 

Examination May/June 2011-2016 

 

Year  Biology    Chemistry     Physics    

 Total 

entry  

Credit 

passed 

(A1-C6)  

% 

Pass 

Total entry  Credit 

passed 

(A1-C6)  

% Pass  Total 

entry  

Credit 

passed 

(A1-C6)  

% Pass 

2011 1,505,199 74,432 38.50 565,692 280,280 49.54  563,161 360,096 63.94 

2012 1,646,150 587,044 35.66 627,302 270,570 43.13  624,658 429,415 68.74 

2013 1,648,363 852,717 51.73 639,296 462,517 72.34  637,023 297,988 46.77 

2014 1,365,384 766,971 56.17 636,296 397,649 62.49  635,729 386,270 60.76 

2015 1,390,234 989,246 57.42 680,357 412,323 60.60  684,124 410,543 60.01 

2016 1,200,367 740,345 61.68 706,873 408,122 57.74  705,125 415,655 58.95 

Source: West African Examination Council, Nigeria. 

 

From the table above, it can be seen in chemistry that students performed up to the expected standard only in 2013 

with 72.034% followed by yearly decline in the students’ performance in the subsequent years. The question one 

would ask is to what extent would the conventional method of teaching commonly used in Nigeria schools help 

students in solving problems involving qualitative analysis? 
Qualitative analysis is an aspect of chemistry which deals with reactions of metals and non-metals with water, 

identification of cations and anions in simple salts or in a mixture of two or more salts and so on. These identified 

concepts involve pure practical work in which POCIL as a classroom and laboratory technique seek to 

simultaneously teach content and process skills such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part 

of a collaborative team. POGIL classroom consist of students working in small groups on specifically designed 

guided inquiry materials. These materials supply students with information followed by leading questions designed 

to guide them toward formulation of their own valid conclusions-essentially a recapitulation of the scientific 

method. The instructor serves as facilitator, observing and periodically addressing individual needs. POGIL is based 

on research that; 

 teaching by telling does not work for most students  

 students who are part of an interactive community, are more likely to be successful and  

 knowledge is personal; students enjoy themselves more and develop greater ownership over the material 
when they are given opportunity to construct their own understanding. It has been founded that a discovery-

based team environment energises students and provides instructors with instant and constant feedback 

about what their students understand and misunderstand. POGIL emphasizes that learning in not a solitary 

task or memorization of information, but an interactive process of refining understanding and developing 

one’s skills.  

2. Theoretical framework  

The theoretical framework for this study is constructivist in nature which is guided by the notion that learning is 

believed to occur through students’ actively constructing / generating their own meanings from different experiences 



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36 

 

 

to which they are exposed (Bodmer,1986).  Also, POGIL is theoretically based on the conception of cognitive 

theorists. 

Jean Piaget (1973) is considered to be the originator of the constructivist approach to education. The constructivist 

approach states that in order for learning to occur, a student must construct his or her own knowledge by 

incorporating new knowledge into existing knowledge. It is the role of the educator to provide an educational 

environment in which a student can construct meaning of new material learned by making meaningful connection to 
prior knowledge.   

3. The concept of POGIL 

POGIL is a classroom and classroom technique that seeks to simultaneously teach content and key process skills 

such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part of a collaborative team.  

POGIL is a student-centered instructional strategy. In a POGIL classroom or laboratory, students work in small 

groups on specially designed activities that follow a learning cycle paradigm. There are three key characteristics of 

the material used in a POGIL learning environment 

 They are designed for use with self-managed teams that employ the instructor as a facilitator of 

learning rather than as a resource of information  

 They use discipline/content to facilitate the development of important process skills including higher-

level thinking and the ability to learn and apply knowledge in new contexts.  

 The goal of the POGIL approach is not only to develop content mastery through student construction 
of their own understanding, but also to enhance re-learning skills such as information processing, oral 

and written communication, critical thinking, problem solving and metacognition and assessment.  

The key components of POGIL-is active engagement of all students through group leaving. The students work in 

small groups (of three or four) on a specifically designed activity, with the instructor serving as a facilitator who 

listens to the discussion and intervenes only when necessary.  

4. Statement of the Problem 

Current chemistry pedagogy is not producing a desirable results (Omoniyi, 2016). How can chemistry instruction be 

improved so that students can learn chemistry and produce desirable results in WAESCE. 

Inquiry science lessons have been proposed as a best practices for teaching science (Nadelson,2009). Inquiry lessons 

require that students think and behave like scientists to generate and develop ideas based on the evidence and data 

they generate. 
In a guided inquiry lesson, students work in small cooperative learning groups using print materials that ask 

questions designed to guide students to “develop their own understanding of the concept” (Combine process skills, 

2009). 

Guided inquiry offers a new way for teachers to assist students as they develop.  

Poor performance of students in chemistry as reported by WAEC Chief Examiners Report (2016) stated that the 

performance of students in qualitative analysis was poor because of the following reasons: 

 Failure to adhere to instruction  

 Poor understanding of the questions  

 Poor practical exposure and giving theoretical answer to practical questions  

 Inappropriate use of terminology especially in qualitative analysis  

 Inability to record observation and inference correctly, and   

 Wrong fixing of ions  
In view of these, sciences teachers need to seek suitable ways of reducing the failure rate in chemistry by using 

innovative teaching strategies, hence, POGIL is a learning activity that can improve students’ academic performance 

in practical chemistry if effectively used.  

To guide the study, two hypotheses were formulated namely; 

 There is no significant difference in the pretest scores of students on the selected chemistry concept-

Reaction of metals with water 

 There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students exposed to POGIL and 

lecture method after treatment. 

5. Method  
The study adopted a pretest, posttest group design. The population for the study consisted of students offering 

chemistry in Senior Secondary II in the 18 Secondary Schools in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo 
State out of which two schools were randomly selected. Two intact science classes were selected from the two 

schools. A total of 60 Senior Secondary School II Chemistry Students participated in the study. The period of 

administration was five weeks. The concept chosen is Reaction of Metals with Water which is taught under 

qualitative aspect of the practical chemistry in the Senior Secondary School Practical Chemistry Curriculum. 



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6. Instrument and Administration  

One instrument tagged Chemistry Practical Achievement Test (CPAT) was used to collect data for the study. CPAT 

was used as pretest and post test to determine the effect of the treatment on students’ performance. This consisted 15 

item short structured questions to find out students competence and skills in handling reagents, observation and 

writing inferential reports on the laboratory experiments carried out by the students. The questions were given to 

University and Secondary school chemistry teachers for vetting. This was to ensure content validity and suitability.  

7. Instructional Package to POGIL 

Step I:  Students are divided into small groups of four students on a specially    designed activity, 

with the instructor serving as a facilitator who listens to    the discussion and intervenes only 

when necessary   

Step II: Students are asked to identify some metals – such as Sodium (Na), Iron II &   Iron III (Fe III), 

Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K) 

Step III: Students are asked to add water (H20) to these identified metals and observed   the 

reaction  

Step IV: Students are to write their observations and the equations for the reactions    that took 

place  

e.g  (i) Na(2)  2H20   2Na0H  H2 

 (ii) Mg(s)  H20  MgO(s)  H2(g) 

 (iii) 2Ks  2 H20  2KOH  H2(g) 
Step V: Teachers collects the practical notes and mark  

8. Data Collection and Analysis  

At the pre-treatment stage, during the first week of the study, pre-test was administered to the participating students 
in each school. This was followed by assigning the schools into groups. 

Experimental Group I- was the POGIL group, they are given apparatus and reagents on reaction of metals with 

water, while the teacher serves as facilitator.  

The second group is the lecture method group where the students watch the teacher as she explained the concept to 

the students while students are passive listeners. The two groups were taught separately by the researcher for a 

period of three weeks after which the post-test was administered.  

At the post-treatment stage which was the last week of the experiment, CPAT was administered to both the 

experimental and control group as post-test. Data collected were analysed using the mean, standard deviation and t-

test.  

9. Results  
Tables 1 and 2 present the results  

 
Table I: Difference between the pre-treatment scores of experimental and control groups  

 

Group N X SD Df t p 

POGIL 33 10.64 2.24  

58 

 

0.766 

 

0.447 LM 27 10.26 1.35 

 

Table II: Difference between the post-treatment scores of experimental and control groups  

Group N X SD Df t p 

POGIL 33 12.63 2.32  

58 

 

2.966 

 

0.04 LM 27 10.84 2.26 

 

From table I, the t-value of 0.766 was not significant at 0.05 level. This showed that there was no significant 

difference between the mean scores of students exposed to POGIL (X 10.64) and lecture method (X10.26) before 

treatment. Also, table 2 shows that the mean score for the students in the POGIL group (X12.63) was higher than 

that of the Lecture method (X10.84). When the mean scores were subjected to t-test, it yielded a value of 2.966 
which was significant at 0.05 level. 



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10. Discussion  
The results show that POGIL strategy was an effective method in teaching some chemistry concepts in the 

qualitative aspect of practical chemistry in the senior secondary school (SSS) chemistry curriculum. Specifically, 

POGIL is effective in the teaching of the topic- Reaction of metals with water which is an important aspect in the 

SSS Chemistry curriculum. This was evident in the result of the post -test in POGIL (X12.63) and lecture method 

(X10.84). The low mean scores of both the experimental and control groups before treatment indicated that 
students had little knowledge about the concept before treatment. 

The reason for the better performance of students in POGIL group could be due to students’ involvement in the use 

of real objects/laboratory reagents and which increased their performance on questions requiring higher order 
thinking such as application and analysis.  

11. Conclusion  
The use of POGIL strategy had an overall positive effect on students’ performance and the classroom environment. 

Students mean scores improved as a result of higher – order thinking such as application and analysis that were 

involved in POGIL Class. Also, students’ critical thinking improved with the use of POGIL strategy. 

POGIL is both a philosophy and a strategy for teaching and learning. It is a philosophy because it encompasses 

specific ideas about the nature of the learning process and the expected outcomes. It is a strategy because it provides 

a student-centered methodology and structure that are consistent with the way people learn and achieve these 

outcomes. The goal of POGIL is to help students simultaneously master discipline content and develop essential 

learning skills.  

POGIL is built on a research base, sharing the key premise that most students learn best when they are actively 

engaged in analyzing data, models or examples and when they are discussion ideas; when they are working together 
in self-managed teams to understand concepts and solve problems, when they are reflecting on what they have 

learned and thinking about how to improve performance, and then they are interacting with an instructor who serves 

as a guide or facilitator of learning rather than as a source of information. 

POGIL materials guide students through an exploration to construct and facilitate the development of higher-level 

thinking skills and the ability to learn and apply knowledge in new contexts.       

12. Recommendation 
 Science teachers in general, and chemistry teachers in particular should be encouraged to use POGIL 

method of construction in laboratory activities so as to make them resourceful instrumentations where 

laboratory materials are inadequate or unavailable.  

 Government should provide well-equipped science laboratory for both teachers and students to make 

POGIL strategy resourceful. 
 Science teachers should be updated and exposed to innovative teaching strategy through seminars, 

workshops and in service training programme. 

References  
Brewer C. A., Smith D. (2011).vision and change in Undergraduate Biology Education. A call to action 

AAAS:2011 

Douglas, E. P & Chiu, C. C. (2012). “Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning in Engineering”. Elsevier, 

procedia-social and behavioural science 56, 253-257. 

Jean Piaget (1973). Cognitive Development. The Journal of the Jean Piaget Society. 

www.piaget.org./journal/index.html 

Moog, R. (2014). Process oriented guided inquiry learning. In McDaniel M., Fray R.F, Fitzpatricks M& Roadiger 

H. L. (Eds). Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative teaching in STEM discipline. St. Louis : 

Washington University in St. Louis Libraries (Ereader version). http//dxz.doc.org./k7PNg3Hc pp 147-166 
Nadelson (2009). Educational professional’s knowledge and Acceptance of Evolution. SAGE Journal 

Omoniyi A. O.(2016). Effectiveness of problem solving approach on Gender Related Differences in Teaching 

Secondary School Chemistry Students Mathematical concepts of Chemistry in Ondo State, Nigeria. 

European journal of Education  2(10), 53-60. 

 

Copyrights  

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an 

open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license 

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 

 


