Effect Of Computer Assisted Learning On Secondary School Students’ Achievement In Chemistry In Murang’a South Sub – County, Murang’a County, Kenya.

The study sought to investigate effect of integration of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) on students’ mastery of chemistry in secondary schools in Murang’a South Sub - County, Kenya. Documentary evidence indicate students’ persistent poor performance in the subject in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) not only for Murang’a Sub – County students’ but for the country at large. The poor performance has been attributed to among other factors poor teaching methodologies adopted by classroom teachers in teaching the subject. Literature shows that integration of CAL in the teaching and learning of the subject enhances classroom pedagogical approach leading to improved performance. However, limited empirical data exist on the efficacy of use of the method in secondary school in Kenya. Therefore, an experimental study was designed to determine the effect use of CAL on students’ mastery and achievement in chemistry. The objectives of the study were to compare effects of use of CAL and traditional methods on the academic achievement in chemistry, to investigate the effect of use of CAL on students’ achievement based on gender and effect of use of CAL on students achievement in chemistry based on age. The study sample consisted of 297 form two secondary school students drawn from six (6) secondary schools using purposive and simple random sampling. The sample was divided into an experimental and control group with each consisting of 138 and 159 respectively. A pre-test instrument prepared by the researcher was administered to each of the two groups at the beginning of the study, the experimental group was exposed to CAL method of instruction developed by the Kenya Institute of Education (K.I.E) consisting of drills, tutorials and simulations while the control group was exposed to traditional methods in teaching of carbon (IV) oxide. At the end of the treatment, a post-test instrument which had been developed by the researcher was administered to each of the groups. Data obtained from the instruments were analysed descriptively using frequency and percentages and inferentially using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the aid