Abstract

In this study, the researchers investigated the effect of blended learning strategy on secondary school students’ academic achievement and retention in physics in Makurdi Local Govt of Benue state. Quasi-experimental research design of pretest posttest was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised of 8,670 SS II students and a sample of 88 students in secondary school within the study area. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a Physics Achievement Test (PAT). The researchers administered the instrument to Physics students after the treatment, the responses were collected and Cronbach Alpha statistics was employed to compute the internal consistency estimate of the items. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.82. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. Independent sample t-test was employed in testing the hypotheses at p< 0.05. The results of the study indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean achievement scores of blended learning strategy and conventional method. Based on the findings it was concluded that students taught using blended learning strategy achieved better than those taught using conventional method of teaching. So also, students taught by blended learning strategy retain knowledge better than those taught using conventional method. Hence, students taught using blended learning strategy perform better than those taught by conventional method. Therefore, it was recommended that science teachers especially physics teachers should endeavor to incorporate blended learning strategy into the teaching and learning of physics so as to increase achievement and retention in the subject.