The study determined the available Physics Laboratory Equipment (PLE) for the teaching and learning of physics in senior secondary schools in Nigeria as well as the extent of utilizing the available equipment. The research design adopted for the study was descriptive survey. The sample consisted of nine hundred students who were randomly chosen and fifty Physics teachers who were purposively selected from forty five senior secondary schools in the south western region of Nigeria.Three instruments were used for the collection of data for the study. They are a self-designed questionnaire tagged "Physics Laboratory Equipment Questionnaire" (PLEQ) with reliability of 0.72, a checklist of Physics equipment and Physics Achievement Test (PAT) to measure students' achievement. The results showed that the optimal utilization of physics laboratory equipment is effective in the teaching of Physics. The federal schools had the maximum adequately utilized PLE and had the highest mean score,followed by the private schools while the public schools with the minimum available equipment and least utilization capacity had the minimum mean score. The study concluded that science laboratory with adequate equipment is a critical variable in determining the quality of output from senior secondary school Physics.

This study investigated the effect of Mastery Learning Approach (MLA) and Mind Mapping Approach (MMA) in improving students' academic performance in Physics and also determined their effect in enhancing students' retention of Physics. These were with a view to ascertaining the best teaching method for improving students' learning outcomes in Physics. The study adopted the non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group experimental design. Simple random sampling technique was used to select three co-educational secondary schools in Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State in Nigeria. The sample for the study was 74 senior secondary school one (SSS1) Physics students from the three selected secondary schools. Three intact classes were used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was "Physics Achievement and Retention Test" (PART). Data collected were analyzed using t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that there was a significant effect of treatment on the academic performance of students taught with MLA, MMA and conventional method with students taught using MMA showing the best academic performance, followed by MLA and then Conventional. Also, no significant effect of treatment was found in the retention ability of students taught with MLA and MMA with students from both methods having nearly the same mean score. The study concludes that both MLA and MMA could improve students' learning outcomes in Physics; however, MMA could improve students' learning outcomes better. It therefore recommends that ministry of education should organize training for science teachers especially Physics teachers on how best they can adopt these innovative teaching strategies during instruction so that learners would be guided to learn meaningfully and be assisted to retain what is learnt in Physics.

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The study investigated the effects of 5e-cyclic and mental models instructional strategies on junior secondary school students’ academic performance and self-efficacy in Basic Science. The study adopted non-equivalent, pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental research design. The population for the study comprised all junior secondary school students in Ondo State, Nigeria. The sample size consisted of 95 junior secondary school two (JSII) students in three intact classes. The three (3) classes were assigned randomly to two experimental groups (5e-cyclic-model and mental-model instructional strategies) and one control group (teacher expository method). Two instruments were used for data collection namely: Basic Science Concept Test (BSCT) and Basic Science Self-Efficacy Rating Scale (BSSERS). Data collected were analysed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results showed that there was a significant effect of treatments on the academic performance of students taught with 5e-cyclic-model and mental-model instructional strategies and teacher expository method with students taught using 5e-cyclic-model and mental model showing better performance than teacher expository. Also, significant effect of treatment was found in the self-efficacy of students taught with 5e-cyclic-model and mental-model with students from both techniques performed better than teacher expository. The study concluded that 5e-cyclic and mental models instructional strategies had improved the academic performance and self-efficacy of students in Basic Science. Therefore, it was recommended that teachers should use 5e-cylic model and mental model instructional strategies to teach Basic Science concepts because the instructional strategies have been demonstrated to be more effective as a teaching-learning strategies for Basic Science than teacher expository method.