INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA, Ebele C. Okigbo, Nneka R. Nnorom, Ernest O. Onwukwe [best reads .TXT] 📗

issues and questions, then they examine the resources they need to research the topic, thereby acquiring the requisite knowledge, knowledge so gained is more readily retained because it has been acquired through experience and relation to a real-problem (Centre for Excellence in Inquiry-Based Learning, 2010).Education Broadcasting Corporation (2004) simply defined inquiry as seeking for truth, information or knowledge by questioning. Inquiry helps students to learn and experience biology first-hand by taking up the role of a Scientist. The Student uses inquiry process to develop explanations from their observation (evidence) by integrating what they already know with what they have learned (Opara, 2011).

 

Traditional methods of teaching such as lecture method do not adequately involve learners in the learning process. Lecture method is based on the philosophy of idealism, it's is a one-way channel of communication of information, Students' involvement in this teaching method is just to listen and sometimes pen down some notes if necessary during the lecture, then combine the information and organize it to better understanding (Uzowulu & Egbeama 2015). One of the problems with this method is to grab the attention of the students in the classroom; most students in the classroom cannot follow-up, because the teacher mainly dishes out verbally, a body of knowledge for the students to take down notes as they listen (Maduewesi & Azubuike, 2008). This method is also known to cause a lack of interest and poor performance in science (Njoku, 2008).However, Nnorom (2019) observed that it is a common practice in Nigeria where a teacher stands before the classroom using a chalkboard and delivers the lesson through verbal instruction while the students serve as passive listeners and take down note from the chalkboard.

 

In this study, gender is one of the moderating variables because it is important to find out if the treatment is gender sensitive. Gender has been linked to achievement and participation in certain professions,so it has remained relevant in education (Ajayi & Osoko, 2013). Gender differences may perhaps influence students'achievement in biology. According to European Union (EU) (2010) gender differences in science achievement are the smallest. It was further stressed that despite performing equally well as boys in most countries, girls tend to have a weaker self-concept in science, biology inclusive than males, i.e. on average, girls had lower levels of belief in their science abilities than boys. Yet both boys and girls are similarly interested in science.Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the effect of inquiry-based learning on Senior Secondary School Students' achievement in Biology.

 

Statement of the Problem

Student's persistent poor performance in biology has been partly ascribed to inadequate teaching and instructional methods adopted by biology teachers. Also, reports have shown that students in many schools are facing different problems in studying biology in Secondary schools, as a result of teacher's non-usage of verbal reinforcement and innovative teaching methods. Innovative teaching when fostered in different ways can ultimately and positively affects students' understanding, achievement and interest in biology. The study therefore sought to investigate the effect of inquiry-based learning on secondary school student's achievement in biology.

 

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of inquiry-based learning on student's achievement in biology in senior secondary schools in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State. Specifically, the study will find out:

The mean achievement scores of students taught biology with inquiry based method and those taught biology with lecture method.

Determine the effects of gender on Students' achievement when taught biology with inquiry based learning strategy

 

Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide this study:

What is the mean achievement scores of students taught biology with inquiry based method and those taught with lecture method?

What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology using inquiry based method?

 

Research Hypotheses

Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study at 0.05 statistic level of significance.

H01: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught biology using inquiry based learning method and those taught using lecture method.

H02: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female biology students taught with inquiry based learning.

 

Method

The study employed Quasi-experimental design, the specific design was a pre-requisite, post-test and non-equivalent control group design. The design was adopted for this study because intact classes were used as it was not possible to have complete randomization of subject. The study was carried out in secondary schools in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State. The population of the study comprises of five hundred and seventy-two (572) senior secondary school two (SSS2) biology students from fourteen (14) government owned senior secondary schools in Oshimili South LGA of Delta state, Nigeria The sample size of the study consisted of one hundred and fifty (150) biology students (70 males and 80 females) of four intact classes from two co-educational secondary schools sampled from the fourteen secondary schools in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State.

 

The research instrument for data collection was a biology achievement test constructed by the researcher. The Biology Achievement Test (BAT) consisted of twenty (20) multiple choice objective questions, each item has four options lettered (A-E) and each of the questions carries one mark, only one option is correct out of the five options. The Instrument used in the study both the biology achievement test (BAT) and the lesson plans were face validated by two experts, one from the department of Science education biology education unit and the other in measurement and evaluation unit of the department of educational foundations all in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University. They were to check the contents covered along with the stated objectives. Comments and corrections were made which were put into work by the researcher. The instrument for data collection, BAT was administered to 20 respondents from a different school in Onitsha education zone which is outside the area of study. The reliability was established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. A reliability index of 0.81 was obtained for the instrument. As a result of the high reliability index, the instrument was considered suitable for the study.

 

Experimental procedure

Before the treatment begins, orientation was given to the biology teachers of the sampled schools on how to go about the research. The biology teacher of the experimental group use the lesson note prepared by the researcher. For the control group, the biology teacher used the regular lesson note. A pre-test was given to the students by the biology teacher before the actual treatment, the scripts were marked and the scores obtained before the actual study. The main treatment for the study was the teaching of functional ecosystem to SS11 biology students using the inquiry based learning. The experimental group was taught by their biology teacher using the lesson package on inquiry based learning developed by the researcher based on the selected topic, while the control group was taught using lecture method.

The experimental group was asked to go round the school environment for some activities through the teacher’s guidance as follows:

The teacher identifies through investigation using some questions, learner’s prior knowledge, ideas that will conflict with the new learning task with view of eliminating the misconceptions based on the topic.

The teacher allows the students to explore the environment, trying to make a report on their observation, classification, identification of habitats and behavioural patterns of the living things seen in the environment as they focused on finding solutions to some questions asked by the teacher at the previous stage.

In the classroom, the teacher facilitates the exchange of ideas over difficult concepts and challenges the students to compare ideas including the evidence for scientific perspective through presentation of scientific explanations with clarity and the use of the evidence from their reports to clear some of these difficult concepts. The teacher also goes in greater detail in the explanation of the concepts to ensure that misconceptions are cleared.

The teacher uses “IF” or “What’ to enable students to think and talk about the new problem and possible solutions in relation to the previous findings.

After the treatment the post BAT was administered to the students (both experimental and control group). The scripts were marked and the students scores were marked and scores were recorded. The data was analyse using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while ANCOVA was used to answer the research hypothesis

 

Results

Research Question 1: What is the mean achievement scores of students taught biology with Inquiry based learning method and those taught with lecture method?

 

Table 1: Mean achievement scores of students taught biology with IBL method and those taught with lecture method

 

Pre-test Post test

Groups  N  Mean  SD  Mean  SD  Mean gain

Experimental   90  10.18  0.68  14.92  0.88  4.0

(Inquiry based learning)

Control  60  9.55  0.58  10.60  0.67  1.02

(Lecture method)   150

Differences  0.63  0.10  4.32  0.21  2.98

 

The results in Table 1 above, shows that the 2 groups were originally at almost the same level of achievement with a pre-test mean achievement score of 10.18 and standard deviation of 0.68 for experimental group and a Pre-test mean achievement score of 9.55 and a standard deviation of 0.58 for the control group. The small difference in mean and standard deviation of 0.63 and 0.10 respectively shows that both groups were at equivalent level of achievement. For the post test, the experimental group obtained a higher mean achievement score of 14.92 with a standard deviation of 0.88. The control group obtained a mean achievement score of 10.60 with a standard deviation of 0.67. The difference in the post test mean and standard deviation scores for the 2 groups were 4.32 and 0.21 respectively. The mean gain scores for the 2 groups were 4.0 and 1.02 for experimental and control groups respectively. This signifies that the experimental group benefited more in the lessons. Hence inquiry-based learning enhanced secondary school students' achievement in Adaptation unit in biology more than the lecture method.

 

Research Question 2: What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology using Inquiry based learning?

 

Table 2: Mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology using inquiry-based learning.

 

Gender  Pretest  Post test

 N  Mean  SD  Mean  SD  Mean Gain

Female  80  10.02  0.61  13.70  0.66  3.68

Male  70  10.08  0.73  14.77  0.80  4.50

 

Table 2 shows that the mean achievement scores of female and male students taught with inquiry-oriented method in biology are 14.70 and 14.77 respectively with a standard deviation of 0.66 and 0.80 respectively. The mean achievement score of male students is higher than that of their female counterparts with a difference of 1.07, the mean gain of female students is 3.68 while that of their male counterparts is 4.50. This suggests that male students achieved more than the females when taught biology with inquiry-based learning strategy.

Hypotheses 1: There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught with Inquiry based learning and those taught with lecture method in biology.

Table 3: Summary of ANCOVA for students taught with Inquiry based learning and those taught with lecture method.

Source

Type 111

sum of squares

DF

Mean square

F

Significance

 

Corrected model               

727.691

6

60.641

5.901

 .000

 

Intercept

1143.130

1

114.130

111.245

.000

 

Pre test

137.874

1

137.874

13.147

.000

 

Treatment

428.702

2

214.351

20.860

.000

 

Gender

.579

1

.579

0.56

.031

 

Treatment x gender

10.143

2

5.072

.494

.021

 

Error

1407.782

137

10.276

 

 

Total

25623.000

150

 

 

 

Corrected

2135.473

149

 

 

 

Total

 

 

 

 

 

 Significant (p<0.05)

Table 3: Shows that the F-value (20.860) has a probability value of 0.00, since this value is lesser than 0.05 significance, the null hypothesis is rejected. Hence, there is a significant difference in the mean achievement score of students taught biology with inquiry-based learning strategy and those taught using lecture method.

 

Hypotheses 2: There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology with inquiry-based learning strategy. The result in table 3 shows that F-calculated value (0.494) has a probability value of 0.02, since this value is lesser than 0.05 the null hypothesis is rejected. Hence, there is a significant difference in the mean achievement score of male and female students taught biology using Inquiry based learning. The result indicates that gender has significant effect on the learning outcome of students taught biology with inquiry-based learning strategy.

 

Discussion

The findings of this study indicate that students taught with the inquiry based learning method have a higher achievement score than those taught with the conventional lecture method. The high achievement in