Creativity Level in Chemistry Education by Gender Among Secondary School Students in Kenya

Abstract

Education is the most critical ingredient in a country’s development process in the social, economic and political realms. Kenya in its vision 2030 hopes to be transformed into a newly industrialised, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment by the year 2030.To realise this vision, the country needs to develop through its education system, manpower that is trained to think creatively. The role of Chemistry in the development of the scientific base of a country cannot be over emphasized and Kenya is no exception. Kenya’s secondary school Chemistry, Physics and Biology syllabi recommend the acquisition of creative skills by students. Few studies have been carried out in Kenya with regard to scientific creativity in secondary schools. Studies in Physics and Biology have shown that the level of scientific creativity is low and is influenced by such factors as gender and knowledge. It is not clear whether the low levels on scientific creativity found in Biology and Physics also apply to Chemistry hence there is need to determine the level of scientific creativity in Chemistry and factors influencing the level. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the level of scientific creativity in Chemistry education in Kenya. The study went ahead to find out whether there are gender differences in scientific creativity in chemistry as a whole and in the different aspects of scientific creativity namely; sensitivity to a problem, flexibility, recognition of relationships and planning for investigation. The study involved ex-post facto research with causal-comparative and correlational designs. The population of the study was all Form Three students in National Secondary Schools in Nairobi and Kiambu Counties and all Form Three students in District Secondary Schools in Muranga and Kajiado Counties in Kenya. A sample of 16 schools (4 Boys’ and 4 Girls’ National schools and 4 Boys’ and 4 Girls’ District schools) were involved in this study. National schools were selected through random sampling, while the County schools selection were through purposive random sampling. Participating Form Three stream (class) in the schools were selected through stratified random sampling. A total of 672 students, (275 boys and 397 girls) were involved in the study. Data were collected using the Chemistry Scientific Creativity Test (CSCT) instrument. Quantitative data from CSCQ was analysed using t-test. Chi-square was used to test for the relation between the two variables; gender and scientific creativity in Chemistry. Tests of significance were done at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of this study indicated that the level of scientific creativity in chemistry education is low. The findings further indicated that the level of scientific creativity in Chemistry was not gender dependent.