ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effects of concept mapping and team pair solo instructional strategies on students' academic achievement and retention in Biology in secondary schools in Abia State. Six research questions were posted and six hypotheses formulated. 3x2 factorial quasi experimental design was utilized. The population of the study was 6,781 SS 1 Biology students in 2017/2018 academic session in Aba Education Zone, Abia State. A multi-stage sampling techniques was used to sample 87 SS1 Biology students in three randomly selected intact classes served as the sample. The instrument used for data collection was Biology Achievement and Retention Test (BART) which comprises of 60 multiple choice items. The instrument was validated by three experts. The reliablity coefficient of the BART using K-R20 was 0.75. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyse the research questions while Analysis of co-varience (ANCOVA) was used to test the Hypothesis. Results of the data analysis revealed that the students achieved and retained better in Biology when taught using Team pair solo strategy, than when taught with Concept mapping and Lecture method. The female achieved and retained significantly better than the male students when taught Biology using Team pair solo strategy than those taught using Concept mapping and Lecture method. There was a significant difference in the achievement and retention mean scores of male and female students in Biology when taught with the three strategies in favour of the female taught with team pair solo strategy. Recommendations were made among which are the need to give more emphasis in the Biology teacher's training programs on the use of Team pair solo instructional strategy; also teacher's should deliberately encourage the students to participate with full interest to innovative methods such as Concept mapping and Team pair solo Instructional strategies in order to be relevant in his students centered and Information age, least they are relegated to the background.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
page
i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table
of contents
vi
List
of Tables viii
Abstract ix
CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 8
1.3 Purpose of Study 9
1.4 Research
Questions 10
1.5 Hypotheses 11
1.6 Significance of the Study 12
1.7 Scope of the Study 15
CHAPTER
2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Conceptual Framework 16
2.1.1 Biology 16
2.1.2 Academic
achievement in biology 22
2.1.3 Concepts of
retention 26
2.1.4 Different
methods of teaching 28
2.2 Theoretical framework
41
2.2.1 Theory of Ausubel's,
Vygogsky and Brunner 41
2.2.2 The concept of innovation
and its rationale in biology teaching and
learning processes 45
2.3 Related Empirical Studies 48
2.3.1 Studies on concept mapping
instructional strategy 48
2.3.2 Studies on team - pair -
solo instructional strategy 53
2.3.3 Gender
and science education 55
2.4 Summary of Literature
Review 61
CHAPTER 3:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Design of the Study 63
3.2 Area of the Study 64
3.3 Population of the Study 65
3.4 Sample and Sampling
Technique 65
3.5 Instrument for Data
Collection 66
3.6 Validation of the
Instruments 67
3.7 Reliability of the
Instruments 67
3.8 Method of Data Collection 68
3.9 Method of data Analysis 72
CHAPTER
4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results 73
4.1.1
Research question one 73
4.1.2
Research question two 74
4.1.3
Research question three 76
4.1.4
Research question four 78
4.1.5
Research question five 80
4.1.6
Research question six 81
4.2 Hypotheses 82
4.2.1
Hypothesis one 84
4.2.2
Hypothesis two 84
4.2.3
Hypothesis three 85
4.2.4
Hypothesis four 86
4.2.5
Hypothesis five 87
4.2.6
Hypothesis six 89
4.3 Summary of the Findings
90
4.4 Discussion of the Findings 91
CHAPTER
5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Conclusion 96
5.2. Recommendations 96
5.3 Educational Implication of the Study 98
5.4 Limitations of the Study 99
5.5. Suggestions of Further Studies 99
5.6 Summary of the Study 100
References 102
Appendices 110
LIST OF TABLES
4.1: Mean and standard deviation in
achievement scores of
students taught Biology
using concept mapping, team pair
solo and lecture method 73
4.2 Mean and standard deviation
in retention scores of students
taught biology using
concept mapping, team pair solo and
Lecture method 75
4.3: Mean and standard deviation
in achievement scored of male
and female students
taught biology using concept mapping,
team pair solo and
lecture method 76
4.4: Mean and standard deviation in
retention mean scores of male
and female students
taught Biology with concept mapping,
team pair solo and
lecture method 78
4.5: Mean and standard deviation on
the interaction of teaching
strategies and gender on
mean achievement scores of students in biology 80
4.6: Mean and standard deviation on
the interaction of teaching
strategies
and gender on mean retention scores of students in
biology 81
4.7: Analysis of co-variance of the
achievement mean scores of
students taught biology
using concept mapping, team pair
solo and lecture method 82
4.8:
Result of multiple
comparison analysis for students achievement scores (x) teaching
strategy using turkey least significant difference (LSD) method 83
4.9: Analysis of co-variance of the
retention mean scores of students taught Biology using the
concept mapping, team pair solo and lecture method 84
4.10: Analysis of co-variance of the
influence of gender on the mean achievement
scores of students taught Biology using the concept mapping, team pair solo and Lecture method 86
4.11: Analysis of co-variance of the
influence of gender on the
retention mean scores of
students taught Biology using the
concept mapping, team
pair solo and lecture method 87
412: Analysis of co-variance of the
interaction of teaching strategies
and gender on the mean
achievement scores of students in
biology 88
4.13: Analysis of co-variance of the
interaction of teaching strategies
and gender on the mean
retention scores of students in Biology 89
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
TO THE STUDY
Science is seen as the bedrock of National development, and a
nation that is not scientifically advanced is regarded as a backward nation.
The importance of science cannot be over emphasized because it contributes to
medicine, hydrology, agriculture, technology, education, transportation,
healthcare, and so on. Science is the process of making inquiry about living
and non- living things in our environment. Biology is one of the science
subjects taught in secondary schools.
Biology is a very important subject, and is a requirement for
careers such as Nursing, Food technology, Forestry and others.
Biology is
the study of living things both plant and animal. It is a facilitating study
that ranges from microscopic-cellular molecules to the biosphere that
encompasses the earth's surface and its living organisms (Sarogini, 2010).
Biology is very important to humans because it tells about our body, it helps
us to develop cures and treatments of many diseases. Biology also tells us
about plants and how they can be beneficial to human life.
Biology as a science subject, helps human life in increasing
production of food, combating diseases and also aids in protecting and
conserving our environment. Knowledge of Biology has helped humans to
understand similarities between all forms of life and to effectively teach the
subject towards enhancing students’ achievement in Biology.
Students’ achievement is
usually determined through tests and examinations which could be written, oral,
or practical projects. A student whose academic achievement is high or
impressive in a particular subject is rightly assumed to have learnt much in
that subject. The understanding an individual derives from a learning situation
depends on both ideas and knowledge, individual's organization of the knowledge
and deliberate re-structuring of his pre-existing conceptual framework.
Learning becomes effective when students are actively involved in the
teaching-learning process that takes place in the classroom.
It is logical to say that
if there is poor academic achievement in any educational system or subject
area, then little/insufficient learning has taken place in that educational
system or subject area. According to Igbokwe in Anidu (2007), what is learnt is
expressed as academic achievement, and so the method of teaching learners
becomes an important issue in teaching and learning. The purpose of teaching at
any level of education is to bring fundamental change on the learner (Tebabal
and Kahssay, 2011).
Teaching is the process
of carrying out those activities that experience has shown to be effective in
getting students to learn (Smith, 2011). Teaching and learning constantly
endeavor to examine the extent to which different teaching methods enhance knowledge
in students' learning.
One cardinal aim of
learning is to acquire useful information and skill which could be applied in
solving day-to-day problems. When these skills are applied, there arises the
need to be able to remember those important principles in various situations
where they may be appropriate. There is no need teaching if what is learnt
cannot be retained and recalled.
Retention is the ability
to store or hold unto what has been taught/learnt and what had been stored in
the memory. According to Bichi (2002), retention is the ability to retain and
later remember information or knowledge gained after learning into memory.
Retention can also be defined as an ability to retain things in mind;
especially a preservation of the after effects of experience and learning that
makes recall or recognition possible. It is a state of being retained. It
therefore implies that the students' retention plays complementary roles in
determining academic achievement in any subject area or discipline.
Student's achievement in
Biology in Senior Secondary Certificates Examination (SSCE) has not been
satisfactory over many years as supported by Chief examiners report of 2013,
2014, 2015 and 2016 where students' passes range from 40.28%, 37.57%, 35.19%
and 47.48% respectively. Different reasons have been raised by scholars to this
problem of poor achievement of students.
For (George, 2008 and
Nwagbo, 2006), the teaching of Biology without instructional materials may
certainly result in poor academic achievement and could also be attributed to
many factors such as low interest of students in biology, inadequate motivation
from teacher, poor incentives to biology teachers, lack of adequate supply of
instructional material, lack of qualified teachers, use of teacher centered
instructional strategies, inadequate use of instructional materials and use of
abstract standardized materials. Among these factors, teachers use of teacher
centered instructional strategies is considered as an important factor where
mastery of Biology concepts might not be fully achieved without the use of
instructional strategies that the students will be fully abreast with. Folorunso (2004) observed that there is lack
of adequate and appropriate instructional resources for effective teaching of
Biology in schools. Ibitoye and Fape
(2007), traced the poor achievement in science to poor usage of instructional
resources in teaching and learning, poor state of infrastructure facilities,
large class size, poor teaching, use of faulty assessment practice, and
inadequacy of quality teachers. Dinah (2013) conluded that availability of text
books, laboratory apparatus and other learning resources contributes
significantly to the performance of students in Biology examination, also
students with positive attitude towards the subject register better performance
because it motivates them to work hard and this reflects in their good marks
than those who had a negative attitude. Okebukola (2004) the poor state of
laboratory facilities, inadequate use of instructional materials and inability
to use different kinds of instructional methods has constituted a cog in the
wheel of students achievement in Biology in the Senior School Examination. The
verbal exposition does not promote skill acquisition, objectivity, and critical
thinking abilities that will enable the child to function effectively in the
society.
The report of West
African Examination Council (WAEC) on the Senior Secondary School Certificate
Examination (SSCE) (2013), on student enrolment and performance in Nigeria by
subject, grade, and sex revealed low academic achievement in biology and other
science subjects. It also revealed the persistent poor achievement of students
in biology at senior school certificate examination. This leaves one in doubt
about the effectiveness of instructional materials and teaching methods
popularly used by the biology teachers for the teaching and learning of
biology. On this note, resources are seen as materials which help in successful
teaching and learning. Chief examiner's report of 2013-2016 reveals some
Biology topics that pose difficulty for Biology students. Among these are
flowering plant structure, Cell/Respiration, Bone/human vascular system, Plant
physiology/structure and Genetics. When concepts in these areas are not
meaningfully understood by students, they tend to shy away from answering
questions set on them during Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE)
and sometimes perform poorly in these areas. This study used Cell and
Respiration as one of the difficult concepts identified that has resulted to
poor performance of the Secondary School Students in Biology.
In order to grapple with these challenges,
Katerine (2015) advised that teachers should teach the same concepts or
procedures using various methodologies in different tasks, subjects and
physical settings that will help students find similarities between school
context, scientific, cultural or social context. Moreover, when it comes to
applying knowledge and also foster teaching on the understanding of abstract
concepts and processes, learners need to be active participants in the
knowledge acquisition process rather than memorizing data.
It is quite remarkable
that consistent poor academic performance by most students is fundamentally
linked to application of ineffective teaching methods used by the teacher's in
imparting knowledge to learners (Adunola, 2011). Research on the effectiveness
of teaching methods indicates that the quality of teaching is often reflected
by the achievement of learners. For effective teaching, teachers need to be
conversant with numerous teaching strategies. Many innovative strategies have
been developed to bring about improvements in teaching and learning of science.
Such strategies include cooperative learning, concept mapping, jigsaw etc. This
study will consider Concept mapping and Team pair solo Instructional
strategies.
Concept mapping is a meta-learning strategy
based on the Ausubel-Novak-Gowin theory of meaningful learning (Wasonga, 2015).
Its advantage lies on the fact that learning new knowledge is dependent on what
is already known. It upholds that new knowledge gains meaning when it can be
largely related to a framework of existing knowledge rather than being
processed and stored in isolation. It mainly emphasizes the meaningful
relationships between variables or sub-concepts in the main concept. Concept
mapping based instruction is one of the instructional strategies advocated by
Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA)
as a learner-centered learning approach (Makoba, 2012). It is considered an
active rather than passive learning task, and it serves as an elaborative study
activity when students are guided to construct concept maps in the presence of
the materials they are learning. It requires students to enrich the material
they are studying and encode meaningful relationships among concepts within an
organized knowledge structure. Instructional concept maps also serve to
reinforce students' understanding, and assess their achievement, among other
educational applications.
The concept mapping
teaching strategy presents a concept in a hierarchical organized manner
reflecting the psychological structure of knowledge. Concept maps graphically
arrange key concepts to show meaningful relationship among the selection of
concepts or ideas being studied. Thus, when new knowledge is consciously,
explicitly and deliberately linked with relevant concepts which the learner
already knows. The most general concepts are placed high up in the hierarchy
while the concrete or specific concepts are placed below. Then, these concepts
are connected with arrows showing relationships. The construction of concept
maps can be regarded as a creative activity, which makes learning
learner-centered. A good concept map resembles a road map. Ajaja (2011),
advocated that concept mapping encourages students to learn difficult concepts
based on the ideas of meaningful learning. It has also helped students to
retain biological knowledge longer and to determine relationships as well as
critical thinking. Various researches carried out in the past support the fact
that this modern strategy of teaching leads to higher academic achievement and
retention more than conventional lecture method of teaching. Such modern strategy
is Team pair solo instructional strategy
Team-pair-solo is a
strategy of cooperative learning where students are grouped into teams first,
they solve problems as a team, then with a partner and finally on their own,
individually (Kagan, 2009). It is designed to motivate the students to tackle
and succeed at problems which initially were beyond their ability. Then all
students take individual (solo) quizzes on the material, at this time they must
not help each other. It was based on the simple notion of mediated learning. It
has also been recently advocated that when teaching students a skill, they
should try it first as a team, again in pairs and finally on their own (Spring,
2007). For instance, Patel and Jain (2008) advocated that Team pair solo helped
the students to interact actively in class activity and also stimulate them to
think and change in their thinking. Thereby improving them in their academic
achievement especially in their reading processes.
When the students are
taught with team pair solo and concept mapping strategies, it tends to equip
them with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values which also lead to adequate
coverage of the syllabus by the teacher, which is one of the guiding principles
of education in Nigeria. In other words, the decisions of the teacher to use
lecture method is not predicated on its effectiveness in enhancing academic
achievement or consideration for gender of the students the lesson is meant
for.
Gender as a factor in
science academic achievement and retention has for some time generated a lot of
concern for science educators. For instance, Egbo (2005) observed that female
students had higher achievement score than male students in science (Biology).
Owolabi and Etun-Irien (2009) and Zember and Blume (2011) observed that male
students had higher scores than female students in terms of cognition and
logical reasoning. Amedu (2015), observed that male students gained more scores
than female students in the use of jigsaw in Biology. Wasonga (2015) found that
females achieved better than male. This study investigated on the influence of
gender on students' academic achievement and retention, using Concept mapping
instructional strategy and Team pair solo instructional strategy.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
There has been continuous
poor academic achievement of students in Biology. Senior Secondary School
Certificate Examination conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC)
and National Examination Council (NECO) between 2013 and 2016 has consistently
revealed poor achievement and retention in Biology. This raises doubt on the
efficacy of the teaching techniques and strategies used by Biology teachers in
schools. There is a need therefore to explore other ways of presenting
difficult Biology concepts to the students in order to enhance meaningful
academic achievement and retention. This calls for the need to find and adopt
an effective strategy in order to improve the situation with a view to enhance
achievement and better retention in Biology.
Gender disparity in biology achievement still
persists in virtually all the schools in the country. The problem with gender
difference could be that the students are having low self esteem as they do not
believe in themselves that they can do better no matter the type of gender.
Favouritism in the aspect of the teacher could also be another problem: this is
a situation whereby the teacher take sides in making sure that a particular
gender understands or get the sum better than the other gender, thereby leaving
behind the other gender to suffer the ignorance due to lack of attention on the
part of the teacher. Finally, several research has been carried out on the
effect of gender on academic performance in Biology but there has been no
research carried out on the effect of gender difference on the academic
achievement and retention of Biology students in Aba Education Zone in Abia
State.
The question then is:
Does gender have influence on students' achievement and retention when taught
Biology using concept mapping or team pair solo instructional strategies?
1.3 PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this
research work was to investigate the relative effects of Concept mapping and
Team pair solo instructional strategy on students’ academic achievement and
retention in secondary schools in Biology in Abia State. Specifically, the
study intended to achieve the following objectives:
1) Determine
the mean achievement mean scored of students taught Biology using Concept
Mapping instructional strategy, Team pair Solo instructional strategy and
Lecture method.
2) Determine
the mean retention scores of students taught Biology using Concept Mapping
instructional strategy, Team pair solo instructional strategy and Lecture
method.
3) Determine
the influence of gender on the mean achievement scores of students taught
Biology using Concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo
instructional strategy and Lecture method.
4) Determine
the influence of gender on the mean retention scores of students taught Biology
using Concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo instructional
strategy and Lecture method.
5) Determine
the interaction of teaching strategies and gender on mean achievement scores of
students in Biology.
6) Determine
the interaction of teaching strategies and gender on mean retention scores of
students in Biology.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1) What
are the effects of concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo
instructional strategy and Lecture method on the mean achievement scores of
students in Biology?
2) What
are the effects of concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo
instructional strategy and Lecture method on the mean retention scores of
students in Biology?
3) What
are the influence of gender on the mean achievement scores of students in
Biology when taught using concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair
solo instructional strategy and Lecture method?
4) What
are the influence of gender on the mean retention scores of students in Biology
when taught using concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo
instructional strategy and Lecture method?
5) What
is the interaction of teaching strategies and gender on mean achievement scores
of students in Biology?
6) What
is the interaction of teaching strategies and gender on mean retention scores
of students in Biology?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
The following four null
hypotheses were formulated for analysis at .05 level of significance:
Ho1: There is no significant difference between
the mean achievement scores of students taught
Biology using the concept mapping instructional strategy, team pair solo instructional strategy and those taught with
Lecture method.
Ho2: There is no significant difference between
the mean retention scores of students taught Biology using the concept mapping
instructional strategy, team pair solo instructional strategy and those taught
with Lecture method.
Ho3: There is no significant influence of gender
and teaching method on the mean achievement
scores of students in Biology.
Ho4: There is no significant influence of gender
and teaching method on the retention mean scores
of students in Biology.
Ho5: There is no significant interaction of
teaching strategies and gender on the mean achievement
scores of students in Biology.
Ho6: There
is no significant interaction of teaching strategies and gender on the mean retention scores of students in Biology.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This
study has both theoretical and practical benefits:
Theoretically, this study will
be used to carry out the belief of David Ausubel's theory of Subsumption,
Vygosky theory of social development and Brunner's theory of learning by
discovery.
Ausubel's posits that teachers
start to examine a central topic required before adding new topics and
sub-topic to represent ideas and create relationship between the main idea and
other information derived by the learner so as to progress at its own step on
the learning continuum, in his own way and at his own time.
Vygosky emphasized on social
interaction, proximal zone of development and more knowledgeable, where someone
in respect to a particular task, the learner have higher ability than the
other, skill or context. It creates critical, motivated and independent
learner. Brunner theory of learning by discovery emphasized that learners build
their own knowledge by drawing previous experience and present ideas to reveal
facts, relationship and new information. These theories maintains that learners
should play a central role in mediating and controlling learning. Conducive
opportunities, tools, environment encourages self-analysis- regulations. They
also encourage critical thinking and cooperate learning among students in
relation to concept mapping and Team pair solo instructional strategies
Practically,
the findings of the study will benefit students, teachers, school supervisors,
teacher educators, science teachers association of Nigeria (STAN) and other
professional bodies. For instance, in the students (learners), the findings
will expose them to better and student centered instructional strategy that
improve their understanding of the concept being taught which are usually the
central focus in every educational curriculum planning. This is why it is
generally said that education is child centered. Thus, curriculum objectives
have always specified what the learners should be able to do after passing
through the curriculum. In this present study, this research work intends to
examine the achievement and retention of Biology students in the senior
secondary schools. Thus, the findings from this study will expose the better
instructional strategy which the teacher should use in teaching Biology so as
to improve the students' achievement and retention in Biology. To this effect,
the problem of poor result in the WAEC/NECO senior school certificate exams in
Biology might come to an end.
To the teachers, the
findings would reveal the two instructional strategies they can use so as to
make teaching more meaningful to the students. The way each of the strategies
will be employed in the study would enable the teachers not only understand
what each of the strategies entails, but also show how to employ each of them
correctly. This study will therefore clear any form of doubt that may be in the
mind of the teachers about what strategies to use and how to employ them. The
efficacy of the two instructional strategies would be revealed from the
findings of this study. It will equip teachers with better effective
ideas/strategies of teaching the students. This among other things would save
them from the monotony of the non-effective traditional lecture method. More
so, the desire to achieve better result with the new instructional strategy
will be very high in the teachers. As students pass out with good results in
biology in their senior school certificate exams, the credit goes to the
teachers and they will definitely derive joy and satisfaction for the job well
done and thus put in more efforts. This may also earn the teachers favorable
assessment by their employers.
To the supervisors of
schools, the finding would make them to be aware of the teaching skills or
strategies they should be looking for during their supervision in schools and
the teaching strategy they should direct the biology teachers to use for
improved teaching and learning as well as for increased achievement and
retention in Biology.
To teacher eductors, they should encourage
teachers who are not using the new strategies to use them in teaching biology
and to be aware of the better instructional strategies that would enhance
students’ achievement and retention and then utilize such strategy in the
teacher education programme for the trainee Biology teacher.
Finally to Professional
bodies such as the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) and the
Mathematical Association of Nigeria (MAN) who have interests in science
education in Nigeria can organize workshops and seminars for science and
mathematics teachers based on the findings of this study since it would reveal
to them the efficacy of the strategies. Such workshops or seminars would be
aimed at re-training the serving teachers and equipping them in the knowledge
and skills of applying the preferred instructional strategy.
1.7 SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
This study was limited to the secondary schools
in Aba Education Zone. The study was restricted to Senior Secondary School 1
(SS1) Biology students. The content coverage chosen for the study was: The Cell
and Respiration which are part of the topics the students performed poorly in
their WAEC Biology examination as identified by WAEC chief examiners report of
2013-2016.Appendix XI. (Pg. 162)
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