Instructional Design and Science Education in Nigeria

Abstract

This study is concerned with the analysis, comparism and examination of implementing inquiry in biology using some senior secondary school (SSS1) students in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. The stratified random sampling technique was used considering the type of school, urban/rural and gender in which four secondary schools were drawn from the fifteen secondary schools Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State (ONELGA). From each of the four schools, fifteen (15) SSS1 biology students were picked up randomly into two classes. The study was made up of thirty (30) students from each school. This amounted to a total of one hundred and twenty (120) students from the four schools representing the sample of the study. These research questions with null hypothesis guided the study with the aid of a quasi experimental research design. These students were randomly assigned to two groups (treatment and control group). Treatment group were those taught biology using the sensitized inquiry teaching method while conventional method (lecture) was used for the control group.(1) Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was developed on the following units in biology, flower pollination, muscle structure and function, and seed germination. All these were drawn from anatomy and physiology of flowering plants and animal physiology in the biology textbook of SSl, to measure the initial and terminal academic achievement of the students. (2) Lesson notes were prepared on the above mentioned units using the inquiry teaching method and the conventional method using a pretest, post-test experimental treatment. Thus, it is the contention of the author that the inquiry approach would enhance student's achievement in biology, hence the thrust of the study.