Effect of Activity-Based Instruction on Performance in Biology among Secondary School Students, Gumel Education Zone, Jigawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Activity-Based Instruction on the performance of

secondary school students in Biology in Gumel Education Zone, Jigawa State,

Nigeria. The study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent

control group design. The population comprised 2,465 Senior Secondary School

Biology students from 15 public secondary schools in the study area. A sample of 174

students drawn from two randomly selected co-educational secondary schools

participated in the study. The instrument used for data collection was the Genetics

Concept Performance Test (GCPT). The instrument was validated by experts in

Biology Education and Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instrument

was established using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), which

yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88, indicating that the instrument was reliable for

the study. Data were collected through the administration of the GCPT as pretest and

posttest to both the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was

taught Genetics concepts using Activity-Based Instruction, while the control group

was taught the same concepts using the lecture method. Mean and Standard Deviation

were used to answer the research questions, while Independent Samples t-test was

used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed

that students taught using Activity-Based Instruction performed significantly better

than those taught using the lecture method. The findings also showed no significant

difference in the performance of male and female students exposed to Activity-Based

Instruction. The study concluded that Activity-Based Instruction is an effective

instructional strategy for improving students’ performance in Biology and is gender

friendly. It was recommended that Biology teachers should frequently adopt Activity

Based Instruction in teaching Biology concepts, especially Genetics, to enhance

students’ academic performance. It was further recommended that workshops and

training programmes should be organized to equip teachers with the skills for

effective implementation of Activity-Based Instruction in secondary schools.