Abstract

The overall estimate of physics students’ interest in practical physics raised doubt for inclusion of variables that fosters interest in physics. Therefore, the study examined the indices that sustains students’ interest in practical physics as factors of teachers’ experience, availability of laboratory facilities and educational simulation games in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. Four research questions and four null hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significant guided the study. A correlational survey research design was adopted for the study. A simple random sampling procedure was used in selecting three hundred and twenty (320), Senior Secondary II (SS II) Physics students from twelve selected schools in the Zone. Practical Physics Interest Scale (PPIS) and Factors for Sustaining Students’ Interest (FSSI) were used for data collection. The PPIS was adapted from Wong and Wong (2019), The FSSI was a structured questionnaire developed by the researchers. The instruments (PPIS) and (FSSI) was validated by three experts and tested for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha with the reliability indices of 0.89, 0.72, 0.87 and 0.86 respectively. Data were analyzed using path analysis for the research questions and to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings of the study amongst others showed that teachers’ experience, availability of instructional facilities and use of educational simulation games positively influenced the practical interest of secondary school physics students. Based on these findings, it was recommended that physics teachers should be encouraged to embark on in-service training that will glare the facet of ICT enhanced education, thereby fostering interest in practical physics.

Keywords: Physics, Interest, Simulation games, Laboratory facilities, Teachers experience and Location