Effect of Laboratory Strategy on Senior Secondary Students’ Achievement in Biology
Journal of the International Centre for Science, Humanities and Education Research(ICSHER), Vol. 2, No. 2, 68-75.
8 Pages Posted: 15 May 2017
Date Written: Dec 30, 2016
Abstract
The study investigated the effect of laboratory strategy on senior secondary students’ achievement in biology. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The non-randomized control group, pretest-posttest quasi experimental design was used for the study. A sample of 275 senior secondary II biology students from six secondary schools in Makurdi metropolis was drawn from a population of 2,754 students and 20 schools using purposive sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.71. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviations to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there was significant difference in the mean achievement scores (p = 0.00 < 0.05) of students taught Biology concepts using investigative laboratory strategy and those taught using expository method, in favour of the laboratory strategy group. In terms of gender, there was no significant difference between the mean achievement scores (P= 0.21 > 0.05) of male and female students taught using investigative laboratory strategy. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the use of investigative laboratory strategy enhanced students’ achievement in Biology than the expository method. It was recommended that Biology teachers should use investigative laboratory strategy in teaching Biology which provides students with an opportunity to carry out practical activities by themselves thereby enhancing their achievement. Also school proprietors should provide laboratory facilities to enable Biology teachers use investigative laboratory strategy in teaching Biology
Keywords: Investigative Laboratory strategy; achievement in biology; gender and biology achievement
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