EFFECTS OF GUIDED-DISCOVERY AND SELF-LEARNING STRATEGIES ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY

Akanbi, A.A. and Kolawole, C.B.

Department of Teacher Education

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

E-mail: adejokeak@gmail.com, comfortlawrence@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The traditional instructional strategy employed by most biology teachers in teaching Biology concept has resulted in low learning outcomes. There is need to employ strategies such as guided discovery and self learning, particularly, among secondary schools students. The two strategies have been proved in literature to have exposed students to a better response to life changes in the real world; needed in alleviating the problem of low students’ achievement in biology, but they have not been adopted in the teaching of biology concepts. This study, therefore, examined the effects of guided discovery (GD) and self-learning (SL) strategies on senior secondary school students’ achievement in biology. The pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Two hundred and forty (240) SS2 students from six purposively selected senior secondary schools in two local government areas of Oyo State were used for the study. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental (GD and SL) and control (CS) groups and the study lasted for fourteen weeks. Six instruments used were: Teachers Instructional Guides for teachers using the two treatments and control group; Students Environmental Achievement Test (r=0.80), Cognitive Style Test (test-retest r=0.81) and Assessment Sheet for evaluating research assistants. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using ANCOVA and Scheffe post hoc test. Treatment had significant main effect on students’ achievement score (F_(2,227) = 197.804; p < 0.05). SL enhanced achievement scores (  =14.59) than GD (  = 14.20) and CS (  = 12.53). Self learning and guided discovery strategies improved students’ achievement in biology. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers, curriculum developers and textbook writers adopt these two strategies for the improvement of students’ learning outcomes in biology.