PRE-THEORETIC INTUITION QUIZ, PUZZLE-BASED CRITICAL THINKING MOTIVATION STRATEGIES, GENDER AND COGNITIVE STYLES ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS IN BIOLOGY

Oluyemi, Akinleye Ogundiwin

Department of Teacher Education

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

E-mail: yemiogundiwin@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Attempts at modifying people’s environmental attitude need to be directed to students in the formal education sector because the foundations of pre-adult attitude toward the environment are formed during childhood, this outcome govern behaviour throughout adult life.  This study, determinedPre-theoretic intuition quiz, Puzzle-based critical thinking motivation strategies, gender and cognitive style as predictors of students’ attitude toward environmental concepts in biology. The pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design with 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Four hundred and fifty one SS2 students from nine purposively selected senior secondary schools in three local government areas of Oyo State were used for the study. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and the study lasted sixteen weeks. Six instruments used for data collection were: Teachers Instructional Guides for teachers using the two treatments and control group; Students Environmental Attitude Scale. (r= 0.81), Cognitive Style Test (test-retest r= 0.81) and Assessment Sheet for the research assistants. Four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and graphs. There was significant main effect of treatment on students’ environmental attitude (F_(2,450) = 287.32; p<0.05), Pre-Theoretic Intuition Quiz had the highest practices scores enhanced attitude scores ( =64.34) than Puzzle-Based learning ( =57.81) and Modified Conventional group ( = 48.97). There was significant interaction effect of cognitive style and sex on students’ environmental attitude scores (F (_1,450) = 6.61; p<0.05). Pre-theoretic intuition quiz and Puzzle-based learning strategies are effective in improving students’ attitude toward a sustainable environmental development, taking into cognizance the cognitive style and gender of students.