EFFECTS OF SCIENCE WRITING HEURISTICS ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT AND SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS ACQUISITION IN BIOLOGY
SOURCE:
Faculty: Education
Department: Science Education
CONTRIBUTORS:
Irede A. Elohor
Okoli J. N
ABSTRACT:
The poor achievement of students in biology and the inability of teachers adopting innovative teaching methods to address the situation and improve on students’ achievement and science process skills acquisition have won the interest of so many researchers in the time past. The situation however, has not improved and the researcher is poised to investigate whether the use of science writing heuristics (SWH) could improve the achievement and acquisition of science process skill of biology students. To achieve this, four research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. Quasi-experimental research design was used, specifically the non-equivalent control group design. The population of the study comprised 1, 946 senior secondary school year two (SS2) biology students in Oshimilli North Local Government Area of Delta State. A sample of 207 SS 2 biology students was used in the study. The instruments for data collection were Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and Science Process Skills Acquisition Test (SPSAT). BAT and SPSAT validated by two lecturers in Science Education Department and one lecturer from Educational Foundations of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the instruments was established using Kudder-Richardson Formula 20 which yielded coefficient of internal consistency of 0.91 for BAT and 0.83 for SPSAT. Data were collected by administering the instruments before as pretest and posttest after six weeks. The data obtained were analyzed using mean and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study showed that the effects of SWH approach on achievement and acquisition of science process skills was significant compared to the use of conventional method. Also, the effects of SWH on male and female students’ achievement and acquisition of science process skills did not differ significantly. The researcher recommended among others that school administrators should organize seminars and workshops for biology teachers to acquaint them with science writing heuristic approach.