EFFECT OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING APPROACH ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY IN AWKA EDUCATION ZONE

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of Experiential Learning Approach (ELA) on secondary school students’ academic achievement in biology in Awka Education Zone. Two research questions and three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design, specifically the pretest posttest non-equivalent control group of 2x2 factorial research design. Four thousand, seven hundred and fifty-five (4755) students constituted the population. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to compose the sample size of fifty-three (15 males and 38 females) senior secondary year two (SS2) students. The sampled students who were in two intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups using a flip of a coin. A Biology Achievement Test (BAT) developed by the researcher using compiled secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) biology past question was used for data collection. The BAT and lesson plans were validated by three experts. The reliability index of the BAT established using Kuder-Richardson 20 yielded reliability coefficient of 0.85. Experimental group was taught selected concepts in biology using ELA while the control group was taught the same concepts using Conventional Lecture Method (CLM). Mean and Standard deviation were used in answering the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the use of ELA is more effective in enhancing students’ academic achievement in biology than CLM. Gender had no significant influence on students’ academic achievement in biology. Also, there was no interaction effect of teaching methods and gender on students’ academic achievement in biology. The study therefore concluded that ELA is a gender friendly approach that enhances students’ academic achievement. Based on the findings, recommendations were made among which include that ELA should be adopted by biology teachers in schools to improve students’ academic achievement in biology.