EFFECT OF GENDER FRIENDLY INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN BIOLOGY

ABSTRACT

The long lasted gender discrimination has led to a persistent under achievement, decline in interest and enrolment in science courses by Nigerian students in general and female ones in particular.  Teachers  unaware  of  their  gender  discrimination  during  teaching  worsen  the situation.  This  study investigated  the efficacy of the use of gender  friendly instructional materials on students’ achievement and interest in biology. Six research questions and six hypothesesguided this study. A non-equivalent control design was used for the study. Senior secondary school one (SS1) students of two schools in  Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Obollo Education Zone were used for the study.These students in their intact classes were  assigned  to  experimental  and  control  groups.  They  were  taught  separately  using different research conditions.  Both groups  were given pre-test and post-test using biology achievement test and biology interest  inventory scale. Analysis of covariance was used to analyse the data generated to test the hypotheses at p<0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that both male and female students exposed to gender friendly instruction materials had higher mean achievement and mean interest scores than those that were not so exposed. It was also  found that gender has no significant effect on students’ achievement and interest when exposed to gender friendly instructional materials.The educational implications of the findings were highlighted based on which some recommendations were made. Among which include that use of gender friendly instructional materials should be emphasized for science teachers,  curriculum  designers,  textbook  writers  and publishers.  Also  that  government  in collaboration with science bodies should organise in-service training for teachers on the need to use gender friendly instructional materials for curriculum delivery.

CHAPTERONE

INTRODUCTION

BackgroundoftheStudy

Advancement  in  science  and  technology  is  generally  believed  to  be  vehicle  to sustainable development. It is in this respect that science for all should be made a  reality. Adegu (2002) stated that any nation that wants to achieve sustainable development must take the issue of science seriously. Again, the World Education Forum(2000) has a frame work of action to achieve  science  for all by the  year 2015.  Nigeriarecognized  the  importance  of science and technology long ago and this led to the establishment of the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1986, followed by adoption of 60:40 tertiary institutions admission policy in favour of science and technology.

In spite of government effort, there still exists gender gap in education especially in the area of female gender achievement in science subjects (Nzewi, 2010). Women are vastly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers in the United States (Hill, Corbett and St. Ross, 2010). Okoli (2012) added that the under representation of women and girls in science and technology education is traceable to gender role stereotyping that is prevalent in different cultures. Gender discrimination is a global problem that has led to the participation of few women in science and technology. Sitting in the same class room, reading the same text book, listening to the same  teacher, boys and girls receive different education (Sadker and Sadker 1994).    Gender  is a term that has psychological or cultural rather than biological connotation.   If the  proper  terms for sex are male and female,  the corresponding terms for gender are masculine and feminine.  Okeke (2007) defined gender as the socially/culturally constructed characteristics and roles, which are associated with males and females in any society.

Biologically, there is a clear and distinctive characteristic in appearance (morphology) and functions (physiology)  as well as in the reproductive  contributions  between men and women,    but   socially   and   otherwise,    they   typically   manifest    mutually   exclusive behaviourssuch  as  emotion,  intelligence,  ambition,  thinking  and  so  on  (Owolabi,2007). Okeke(2007) maintained that not all men possess characteristics assigned to males and vice versa.   In other words it is assumed that female students have exactly the same abilities to succeed on equal terms in science subject and that gender inequalities in science are product of societal discrimination.

Even though several studies show that boys are more favourably disposed to science subjects  than  girls,  some  studies  show  that  girls  perform  better  in science  subjects.  For instance the study of Ezeudu (1995); Njoku (1997);Ukwungwu  (2001); Nwagbo and Okoro (2012)  confirmed  that boys perform better in science  subjects  specifically,  chemistry and physics. On the contrary Ugwuanyi (1998); Ukwungwu (2010) and Mbaba (2010) reported that there is no significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in science subjects. The discrepancies may be as a result of different areas of studies. Thus, in Nigeria, gender differences in education differ from state to state or from one ethnic group to the other. Eze (2008) opined that gender imbalance is not only a problem for girls in Northern Nigeria, but also big problem for boys in Southern Nigeria.

From  the  fore  going,  it  is  obvious  thatboth  boys  and  girls  are   academically disadvantaged  in one state or the other. If we should go by the saying “educate a woman, educate a nation, then women’s education should be made a priority.Again Ali (1997) noted that home is a favourable environment for science learning. Since women spend most of the time with kids at home, they are in a  position  to identify children  that are scientifically talented and drill them in a gender  neutral way before they get themselves accustomed  to

gender discrimination in society. More so, UNISEF (2010) in their operational guidance in

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brief  indicated  profound  effect  of  girls’  education  on development  objectives,  including increasing family income, improving the health of children, reducing fertility and reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Following the above profound effect of girls’education causes of gender problems in education of girls should be identified and solved.Okeke, Nzewi, and Njoku (2008) identified child labour, poverty and lack of sponsorship, quest for wealth, bereavement,  truancy, and broken  home  and  engagement  of children  as house  helps as factors  affecting  children’s education.   Bayisenge (2010) noted early marriage as one of thebarriers to girl’s education. When  a  girl  is  involved  in early marriage,  home  responsibilities  will  hinder  her  active participation  in science.  Thus Eriba (2001)  and  Nweke (2001) observed  that the level of female  participation  in science,  technology  and  mathematics  remain  unimpressive.Nzewi (2010)  noted  sex  role  stereotyping  as  the  most  critical  of  all factors  that  affect  female participation and achievement in science and technology.

Sex role or gender stereotyping is a collection of commonly held beliefs or opinions about  what are appropriate  characteristics,  behaviours  and activities  for male  and female (Okeke 2007).  Nzewi (2010) defined it as the socio-cultural classification of human activities by sex in line with what the society considers appropriates for one sex or the other. This is to say  that  gender  is  the  outcome  of  cultural  learning  and  socialization  which  continues throughout life thereby affecting inspirations and future careers of many. Gender stereotype begins from home. Starting from birth in most African countries like Nigeria, girls are given pet names while boys are given names that  reflect their assigned attributes as bold, brave, logical in reasoning  etc.   The  naming  habit  is what Ikekonwu  (2009)  called  mixed-mag naming phenomenon and  lamented  on how it had affected girl child education in Nigeria. From birth, the baby girl is exposed to avoid science and the societal set up did not give girls opportunity  to  experience/manipulate  the  environment  which  is  pre-requisite  to  science,

instead she is kept in doors to do the house work while her brother is left free to move about exploring the environment (Ezeliora 2003).   While in school, parents and  teachers do not expect the girl child to do more than the societal expectations.  They discourage her from choosing carrier in sciences; instead her brother is encouraged to read engineering, medicine, pharmacy etc. This attitude resulted in many girls perceiving science as masculine discipline, leading to poor enrolment of female in science discipline (Green, 2009).Thus Okeke (2001) and Abuh (2003) noted that when a child is asked to draw a scientists or name best scientists, they draw and name male scientists.

Furthermore, Shirly and Diana (2010) highlighted other school factors hindering girls’ participation  in science  as:  inadequate  sanitation  facilities,  lack  of  provision  of  sanitary materials for teenage girls, sexual harassment by male teachers and classmates and lack of female  science  teachers.  Kings(1999)  noted  that absence  of functional  female only toilet caused parents in rural schools to withdraw their daughters. Still in school, attitude of science teachers make the situation difficult for girls. For instance the instructional strategies used by science teachers put the female learners at a disadvantage. Teachers set higher expectations of achievement in science for boys and convey to  girls, lower level of expectations.  In most science group activities, the boys are always made the leader (Ezeliora, 2004).  In such case, girls assume the position of recorders and observers.

However teachers should not be blamed alone because several studies have  shown that both the curriculum  and school science  materials  such as text books,  bulletin board displays  and  software  programme  demonstrate  masculine  bias.  Thus  Ezeliora  (1999); Adeyegbe(2000) and Okeke (2007) noted that the so called curriculum content reflect mainly the concern of males and did notemphasize  science as to awaken in girls, the interest and curiosity to  seek  for  science.  Curriculum  according  to  Tanner and  Tanner  (1975)  is the planned and intended learning outcome, formulated through the systematic reconstruction of

knowledge and experiences, under the auspices of the school for the learner’s continuous and wilful growth and social competence. Offorma, (1994) viewed it as the organized knowledge presented  to learners  in school. She went further to explain that it  represent choice maid regarding what should be taught, how it should be taught, and to whom it should be taught. Curriculum is the totality of learning experiences provided to students so that they can attain general skills and knowledge  at a variety of learning  site (Marsh and Willis, 2003). The hidden curriculum, on the other hand, concerns everything that happens in school that is not

‘official’, for example, social relations in classroom or playground, friendships, relationships between teachers and pupils, levels of bullying and harassment and so on (Paechter,2000). Myers, Tarlor, Adler, and Leonard (2007) argued that students’ informal interactions within the school are the most influential aspect of their socialization into what it means to be female and male in society, and if this aspect of school culture remains unchallenged, nothing much is likely to change. Curriculum being a defined and prescribed course of study which students must fulfil in other to pass a certain level of education should accommodate the interest of both sexes. This shows the need to counter gender bias in curriculum, instructional materials and instructional techniques.

Instructional materials include all forms of information carriers that can be used  to promote and encourage effective teaching and learning environment (Azikiwe, 1994). They could be in form of print materials like text books, references books, journals, posters, charts, workbook andnon-print materials such as films, tapes, models, picture, recorders etc. These materials  when appropriately  used  facilitate  learning  and saves  teaching  learning process from being merely the talk and chalk approach.   Gender friendly curriculum materials will adopt Rosser (1993) and Gondek (2002) gender equity teaching strategy. This refers to the use  of  female  inclusive  illustrations  /pictures  instead  of  that  of  males  which  originally dominate  textbooks  and  other  instructional  materials;  giving  male  and  female  students

equalattention either to ask question, answer question or make contribution; giving both male and  female  students  equal  opportunity  to  leader  in  any  group  work  or  to  participate individually were materials are not enough. Again spoken and written languages to be used will be gender neutral.Explanations andexamples will reflectnon-gender role stereotypes will be used regardless of suggestions of some researchers likeEzeliora (2004) and Abuh (2003) recommended using innovative instructional strategies and female friendly example, referring to a woman who can mix ingredients in the right proportion to make a palatable soup as the best chemist. It is believed that in so doing girls interest in science will be awakened. But in other to increase the interest both groups, a gender friendly strategy is deemed feet.

Interest is a persisting tendency to pay attention and enjoy some activity or content (Chukwu,2002). It is a person’s relatively stable or enduring predisposition, positive affective orientation, and tendency to persevere when working on certain specific academic content or task domains. Interest is a sustained attention giving to an object or idea in the presence of other competing stimuli impinging and demanding for attention (Nzeribe and Sawa, 2002). Positive relationship has been reported between interest and achievement. When students are allowed to pursue their own interests, they participate more, stay involved for longer periods, and exhibit creative practices in doing science(Pintrich and Schunk, 2002;Schiefele,1999 and Seiler, 2006). Because female interest in science is not aroused early from child hood they hardly venture  into  science related  career. An observation  made in University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN),  showed that female professors dominate education faculty, linguistics and few departments in biologicalsciences while male professors dominate physical sciences and engineering  faculty.Researchers  have also provided  some insight  into students’ interest  in biology. It is the most popular science subject among student and adult (Baram- Tsabari and Yaden, 2009;Murray and Reiss, 2005; Osborne and Collins, 2000), and  especially among females. Interest in biology is not a constant trait. It changes with age in relation to sex and

topic(Baram- Tsabari, Sethi, Bry, and Yarden, 2006 and Baram-Tsabari and Yaden, 2005). Having interestin biology may likely promote achievement in the subject.

Achievement  is basically what students can actually do when they have  finished  a course of study. It is the ability to demonstrate accomplishment of some outcome for which learning  experiences  were designed.  This means  that a candidate  met  the criteria  of the standard to a level which shows adequate understanding of the material tested. Even though biology  enjoys  the  most  popularity  among  students,   several  studies,Adewumi,   1994; Nkpa,1997 and Mbajiogu, 2002, on achievement in biology revealed under-achievement. The continued  under-achievement   in  biology  is   attributed  to  lack  of  competent   teachers, imbalance in curriculum and teaching aids, improper teaching method and above all, gender stereotype. It then becomes worthwhile to investigate the effect of gender friendly curriculum materials on achievement and interest in biology.

Statement of Problem

Students   record   poor   achievement   in   biology   and   science   in   general.   Poor achievement  in  science  is  attributed  to  low  interest  in  science  subjects.  Evidence  from research has indicated that lack of interest and poor achievement especially on the part of girls are due to many factors including early marriage lack of female science teachers as role model,  imbalance  in  curriculum  content,  materials  and  method  of  teaching,  attitude  of parents, peer and teachers towards girl child education (sex role stereotyping) and non-use of gender friendly curriculum materials. The effect has been the underrepresentation of women in all occupations dealing with science, technology, mathematics or engineering.

Gender stereotyping is considered the major cause of low interest and achievement of girls  in  science   because   parents,   curriculum   planners,   teachers   as  well  as   students assimilatethe  same  societal  believe  on  gender  role.  This  explains  better  why  there  is

imbalance   in  child  upbringing,   curriculum   content,   materials   and  implementation   in classroom. The societal constructed  expectation that mathematics,  science, and  technology are male domains is reinforced by the obvious predominance of men in these fields both in number, positions of responsibility and achievement. Because women are product of the same socialization, majority of them fail to pursue science courses beyond minimum requirements.

Most work on gender and science education focused on low achievement of girls in science and their causes with few on ways to promote gender equity. In other to  increase girls’ interest and achievement in science, they should be encouragement through the use of gender balanced instructional materials and other strategies. It is therefore possible that the use ofgender friendly instructional materials will stimulate interest and achievement of girls in  science  especially  biology.  Hence  the  need  for  this  study,  effect  of  gender  friendly instructional materials on student achievement and interest in biology.

PurposeoftheStudy

The  purpose  of  this  study is  to  investigate  the  effect  of  female  gender  friendly instructional  materials  on student’s  achievement  and  interest  in biology.  Specifically,  the study will address the following:

1)  The effect  of using gender  friendly  instructional  materials  on student’s  cognitive. achievement in biology

2)  The effect of gender friendly instructional materials on student’s interest in biology.

3)   The  differences  in  academic  achievement  in  biology  between  male  and  female students when exposed to gender friendly instructional materials.

4)  The differences in interest in biology of male and female students when exposed to gender friendly instructional materials.

5)  The interaction effect of treatment and gender on students’ achievement in biology.

6)  The interaction effect of treatment and gender on students’ interest in biology.

Significanceof the Study

The world has become a global village and more and more science oriented. Hence science education must play a vital role in preparing people for scientific task, and decision making, especially the under achievers. To accomplish this task, there is need to understand what factors encourage female participation in science subjects. This study on the efficacy of female gender friendly instructional materials is therefore a welcome idea. It will be an eye opener to beneficiaries like ministry of education, curriculum developers, teachers, students, parents and researchers in this area.

The result of this study will be important to the ministry of education because, it will determine  whether  it is necessary  to  retrain teachers  in accordance  with  gender  friendly instructional  materials  to alleviate  gender  bias in science  education.  Also,  the  study will provide useful information to curriculum planner, developers and innovators on gender issues and  their  implication  to  curriculum  planning.  For  instance,  curriculum  planners  will  be encouraged to identify female science carrier role model and use them to relate to specific topics in science curriculum. These may encourage  female to do well in science like their male counterparts.

Most importantly, the findings of this study will help science teachers change  their one sided instructional technique. They will better appreciate the fact that girls could also do well  in  science  when  they  are  accommodated  in  classroom  lesson  and  during  practical activities or still when female scientists are used as role model by teachers.Furthermore, the result of the study will be significant to female students especially those who are aspiring to get into science related careers. They will become aware that they have potentials towards becoming a scientist in life. Also parents will realize that what a man can do, a woman can do

it even better  and encourage  their children  and words  to choose science  related  careers. Finally, the study will be beneficial to researchers on gender and achievement  in science since findings of this study may be used for reference purpose.

ScopeoftheStudy

The study was carried out in Igbo-Eze North L.G.A. ofObollo education zone of Enugu state. This Local Government Area was chosen because there are reported cases of socio-cultural impediment to women’s education in the area (Eze and Dieke, 2001). Again, the researcher is from the zone and has taught for couple of years in the zone. The researchers hasobserved gender discrimination in the zone especially girls that are engaged in hawking before their school fees are paid otherwise are forced into early marriage.This study tends to investigate the efficacy of gender friendly instructional materials on students’ interest and achievement in selected  topics in biology.Two  broad  topic,plant  and animal nutrition were chosen and were   broken   down  to   mode   of   nutrition,   food   substances,   digestive   enzymes   and photosynthesis. The choice of the content was based on fact that it gave room for class room activities as well as laboratory activities. This creates opportunity to determine the effect of gender friendly instructional materials in classroom and in the laboratory.  Moreover, the link between diet and chronic disease has long been recognized and as a result, nutrition education has  become a necessary and important part of personal development,  health and physical education.

ResearchQuestions

Six research questions are posed for this study and are as follows:

1.       What  are  the  mean  achievement  scores  of  students  exposed  to  gender  friendly instructional materials, and those that were not so exposed to it in biology?

2.        What are the mean interest scores of students exposed to gender friendlyinstructional material and those that were not so exposed in biology?

3.        What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students exposed to gender friendly instructional materials?

4.        What are the mean interest scores of male and female students exposed to  gender friendly instructional materials?

5.        What are the interaction effects of treatment and gender on students’ achievement in biology?

6.        What  are  the  interaction  effects  of  treatment  and  gender  on students’  interest  in biology?

Hypotheses

Six null hypotheses tested at p = 0.05 level of significance were used for the study. They include:

H0:1There  is no significant  different  in the mean achievement  scores  of students  taught using gender friendly instructional materials and those not so taught.

H0:2     There is no significant different in the mean interests scores of student exposed to gender friendly instructional materials and those not so exposed.

H0:3There  is no significant different  in the mean achievement  scores of male and  female students when exposed to gender friendly instructional materials.

H0:4 There is no significanne difference in the mean interest scores male and female students exposed to female gender friendly instructional materials.

H0:5There  is  no  interaction  effect  of treatment  and  gender  on students’  achievement  in biology. H0:6    There is no interaction effect of treatment and gender on students’ interest in biology.

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