EFFECT OF GUIDED INQUIRY METHODS ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN BASIC SCIENCE

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of guided inquiry method on students’ achievement and interest

in basic science. Inquiry learning is a form of active learning where progress is assessed by how well students develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they possess. Guided inquiry allows students to discover specific information by themselves before they make generalization. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. Quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study, specifically, non-equivalent control group design. The study was carried out in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. The sample for the study comprised of 80 JSS II students from two intact classes in two secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu state, drawn using multi stage sampling techniques. The experimental group were taught using guided inquiry method, while the control group was taught using conventional lecture method.  The treatments lasted for four weeks. Two instruments were used for data collection in the study namely; Basic science Achievement Test (BSAT) and Basic Science Interest Inventory Scale (BSIIS). Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results revealed that guided inquiry instructional method was superior to conventional instructional method in facilitating students’ achievement and interest in basic science. There was no significant difference in the mean scores of male and female students in basic science after the treatment, although male students performed slightly  better  than  their female  counterpart.  On  the  test  of  interaction,  it  was revealed that mode of instruction (method) and gender had a significant ordinal interaction effect on students’ achievement and interest in basic science. Inquiry method was more effective than the conventional method. Based on the findings of the study, the educational implications of the findings were highlighted and the following recommendations were proffered among others: that science teachers, and science teacher educators should adopt guided inquiry instructional method when teaching in oder to enhance students’ achievement and interest in basic science. Finally the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies were made.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Science  is  a  systematic  enterprise  that  builds  and  organizes  knowledge  in  the  form  of explanations and  predictions about the universe. Science education on  its own  is the  field concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individual may be children, college students or adult within the general public. The field of science education comprises science content, some social sciences and  some teaching  Pedagogy (Berube,  2008).  The  standard  for  science  education provides exceptions for the development of understanding for students throughout their entire course of the study.

The national policy on Education encourages all processes geared towards producing educators  and  scholars  that  will  encourage  the  spirit  of  inquiry  (FME.2008); One  of  the objectives of primary and junior secondary school Education in Nigeria is to inculcate in children permanent literacy and numeracy and the ability to communicate effectively. The objectives according to Onwu (1993) include the need to prepare students to observe and explore the environment to explain simple natural phenomena and to develop scientific attitudes such as curiosity,  critical  reflection  and  objectivity.  Also  to  enable  students  apply  the  skills  and knowledge gained through science  to  solve everyday problems  in the  environment, and to develop self-confidence and self reliance through problem solving activities in science To be able to pursue this noble objective, among others, basic science was included as one of core subjects. The general objective of basic science and technology education is to enable pupils

observe and explore the environment using their senses and their hands. The objectives are

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specifically aimed to enable the learners: develop interest in science and technology, acquire basic knowledge and skill in science and technology, apply their scientific and technological knowledge  and  skill  to  meet  their  societal  needs,  take  advantage of  the  numerous  career opportunities offered by science and technology and become prepared for further studies in science and technology NERDC (2007)

These objectives are enshrined in the basic science and technology curriculum, derived from the National policy on Education. The design of the curriculum is based on the idea of spirality of themes which are arranged from year one to year six, that is, from the beginning with the simple    to the complex across the 9 (nine) years of basic education in order to sustain the interest of learner promote and meaningful learning (NPE, 2008). Thus the above   objectives which aim at the interest of the students brings us to the topic for this study which is the effects of Guided Inquiry and lecture teaching methods on students Achievement and Interest in Basic sciences

Teaching methods are ways used by teachers to create learning environment and to specify the nature of the activity in which the teacher and the learner will be involved during instructional  delivery  process.  It  is  primarily  a  description  of  learning  objective  oriented activities and the flow of information between the teacher and the learner(s), O’Banon (2002) categorized  teaching  method  into  two  approaches;  namely;  student  centered  approach and teacher centered-approach.

Teacher-centered approaches are grounded in behaviourism and include all the teaching methods  that  see  the  teacher  as  possessor  of  knowledge.  These  methods  include  lecture

/expository, demonstration, discussion, recitation etc .while student centered approaches are

grounded in constructivism and includes all the instructional methods that underscores teachers as decision makers and problem solvers but rather as a guide in the learning process.

The teacher’s role in a student-centred learning environment is, at most, one of facilitator and guide. The students are in control of their own learning and the power and responsibility are the students concern. Learning may be independent, collaborative, cooperative and competitive. The utilization and processing of information is more important than the basic content. Learning takes place in relative contexts and students are engaged in constructing their own knowledge (Theroux, 2001).The teacher who utilizes the student centered method effectively is constantly on the move. The teacher may be engaged with the students as a classroom collective, individually or in groups. Their involvement would include questioning, disciplining, guiding, validating,   monitoring,   motivating,   encouraging,   suggesting,   modeling   and   clarifying (McKenzie,  2005).    This  student  centered  method  is  in  line  with  the  National Policy  on Education.

The inquiry based learning method is described as a range of philosophical, curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching. It  is an instructional method developed during the discovery learning movements of the 1960s. It was developed in response to perceived failure of more traditional forms of instruction, where students are required simply to memorize facts laden instructional materials (Bruner, 1961).  Inquiry learning  is  a  form of active  learning where progress is assessed by how well students develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they possess. Inquiry based learning can be guided or unguided. ; Guided inquiry provides specifics-data or facts but wants students to make generalization. It is carefully planned, closely supervised, targeted on-going assessment and intervention by an instructional team of a school. It allows students to discover specific information by themselves before they

make generalization. There is no prescribed target result which the students have to achieve; rather students are allowed to discover facts for themselves (Okoli, 2001). In contrary, unguided inquiry allows students to discover specifics by themselves before they make generalizations.

Inquiry based learning has been of great influence to science education where it is known as inquiry based science, especially since the publication of US National Science Education standard  in  1996.  Since this  publication  some  educators have  advocated a  return to  more traditional method of teaching  and  assessment. Others feel  inquiry  method is  important  in teaching science to student than the lecture method.

Lecture  teaching  method  is  concerned with  the  teacher  being  the  controller  of the learning environment. Power and responsibilities are held by the teacher and they play the role of instructor (in the form of lectures) and decision makers (in regards to curriculum content and specific outcome) They regard students as having knowledge  holes that needs to be filled with information. The traditional teacher view is that the teacher causes learning to occur, (Novac,

1998).  According to  Awodi,  (2001),  the  lecture  method  is  mainly  teacher-  centered,  with students being constantly passive and contents are constantly taught as absolute knowledge irrespective of the above comments on lecture method of teaching. Lecture method is mostly employed by most science teachers because of some of its advantages which include the fact that it can be used to cover a large content area at a time and students are given the same content at the same time. Another major advantage is that it can be used to teach a large class which is a prominent feature in most Nigerian secondary schools.   It  has been observed that effective teaching may facilitate learning and make it more meaningful. In line with this Sander (2001) stated  that  effective  teaching  helps  the  learner  to  learn  better  ,while  poor  teaching  would naturally lead to poor learning and consequently poor achievement. .

The poor achievement in sciences as indicated by various empirical studies ( Ferdinand,

2007; Betiku, 2001; Omole, 2003; Adeniji, 1998; NECO and WAEC Chief Examiner’s reports, (2005,2007)  respectively)  have  attracted  the     concern  of  all  stakeholders  including  the researchers. Subsequently many factors have been identified and regarded as being responsible for the dwindling trend in the performance of students. These factors include school- teacher- related characteristics, teaching methods social incentives, and a host of others (Olatoye, 2003; Ogunkola, 2008). This suggests that  if the aforelisted factors and others can be taken into consideration, students will excel more in sciences generally and in basic science in particular. However the poor achievement in basic science according to (Omole, 2003) is due to teacher’s use of ineffective methods and strategies in science teaching which among other factors have contributed to the    student’s poor achievement and interest in science at the junior secondary school.

Achievement according to Adeyemi (2008) is the scholastic standing of a student at a given moment. It has to do with the successful accomplishment of goal(s). The purpose of testing an achievement is to help the teacher and the students evaluate and estimate the degree of success  attained  in  learning  a  given  concept.  It  is  also  useful  in  testing  the  retention  of information and skill. It is equally appropriate in determining the efficiency of instruction. One of the issues at stake in education today is students’ achievement measure in relation to teaching and the overall success of learning outcome, Use of guided inquiry   teaching method in teaching simple machine by basic science teachers may make Basic science lesson objective stimulating and interesting to the students

Interest is an important variable in learning because when one is interested in an activity, one is likely to perform positively. Chukwu (2001) stated that interest can be expressed through

simple statement made by individuals of their like and dislikes. Lack of interest according to chukwu     may be caused by uninteresting teaching methods. Also   Obodo (2002) described interest as the attraction which  forces or compels a child   to respond to a particular stimulus

.This  point  that  a child develops interest if a particular stimulus  is attractive and arousing or stimulating This shows that interest comes as a result  of eagerness to learn not by force (Harbor Peters,2002). The development of interest in basic sciences as an objective of the basic science teaching, may likely promote achievement in the course. Guided inquiry method uses the same idea as scientists do when they conduct experiment, thereby making the students become mini scientists.  When students are  learning about  inquiry they should  become  familiar  with the processes used by scientists and the new knowledge that results. Okwor 2007 classified inquiry approaches into guided, unguided/open and modified/coupled inquiry. Our interest from the above information is on guided inquiry.

An issue of contention in Nigeria today is the issue of gender in our society including the educational system. In recent times educators have expressed diverse views about gender and achievement especially in  sciences. While some are of the  view that  males do  better than females, others disagree with this  view, arguing that achievement is a factor dependent on several factors such as socio –economic background, teaching method among others. In view of the issues on the use of guided inquiry and lecture teaching method on students achievement and interest in sciences in senior secondary schools. The researcher wishes to investigate the above teaching methods on student’s achievement and interest in junior secondary school basic science

.irrespective of gender,

Statement of Problem

There is high rate of poor achievement of students in basic science in Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE) over the years. This could be as of the teachers use ineffective methods and strategies in science teaching which among other factors have contributed to the student’s poor achievement in basicb science at the junior secondary school. This poor achievement in integrated science has necessitated the need for basic science in junior secondary school by the Federal Government. The available literature on methods of teaching in science education suggests the need to employ new and innovative teaching strategy such as guided inquiry method.

Based on the fact that basic science is a new area in the Nigerian 6 3 3 4 system of education, it evolved from integrated science which was reviewed to provide a holistic presentation of science and technology with the theme ‘’you and technology’’. There is need to explore more into the best methods of teaching specific topics in basic sciences in other to enhance students’ achievement. Therefore, the problem of this study is posed as a question; what is the effect of guided inquiry and lecture teaching methods on student’s achievement and interest in basic science?

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to find out the effect of guided inquiry and lecture methods of teaching on students’ achievement and interest in basic science. Specifically the study will determine:

1.          the  effects  of  guided  inquiry  and  lecture  teaching  methods  on  students’  mean achievement scores in basic science

2.          the   effects of guided inquiry and lecture   teaching methods on students’ mean interest scores in basic science

3.         the influence of gender on mean achievement scores of students  in basic science

4.         the influence of gender on students’ mean interest scores in basic science

5.          the interaction effect of teaching method and gender on student mean achievement scores in basic science

6.          the interaction effect of teaching method and gender on student mean  interest scores in basic science

Significance of the Study

The  result  of this  study will  be  of immense  benefit  to  basic  science  teachers, curriculum planners, Ministry of Education, teacher training institution and researchers and psychologists. The outcome of this study will expose basic science teachers to more effective techniques of promoting learning, which help to minimize student’s low achievement in the subjects.It will will  make  their  teaching/learning  activities  successful.  Since  guided  inquiry  method  is interaction-oriented, it will equally enable them see the need why they should ensure that their classes posses qualities of guided classroom which include being democratic, and allowing active participation of learners. In a class where all these qualities exist, students will be active, inquisitive and will be able to transfer what they learnt in the classroom to real life situation Also, it will enable basic science teachers to adjust their teaching pattern and recognize students’ ownership of ideas which will be negotiated in the classroom. This will enable the teachers to enjoy teaching as students achieve highly

The findings will be of use to the curriculum planners, to plan basic science curriculum in such a way that the contents will be filled with activities which teachers and students will do together. Curriculum planners would find the result of this study  a relevant tool for curriculum reforms and improvement in line with the Nigerian curriculum   6-3-3-4 which recommends students centered pedagogical method that can assist in achieving the national educational goals which include, the acquisition of appropriate skills, mental, physical and social abilities and

competence that will equip the individual to live in and contribute to the development of the society (Isiugo-Abanihe et al 2010)

The federal ministry of education and other researchers will through this study organize workshops, seminars and conferences for review of pedagogy in science teaching to address the issue of integrating new ideas on teaching of basic science. It might help them in identifying the concept of learners’ cognitive style and teaches instructional style in educational programme planning that could be included in later review of basic science curriculum. It will provide useful information to teachers training institutions. These institutions can enrich their method courses or develop new programme of instructions based on the findings of this study..

Scope of the Study

The  study  is  focused  on  the  effect  of  guided  inquiry  and  lecture  method  on  student’s achievement and interest in Basic science in junior secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone. The study is limited to JSS II students in the zone. The topic was also delimited to Simple Machine, because it is taught at this stage in the Basic science curriculum. It will also determine the influence of gender on students’ achievement and interest in basic science when taught with guided inquiry methods and lecture method.

Research Questions

The following research questions were posed to guide the study:

1.  What is the relative effect of guided-inquiry and lecture methods on students’ mean achievement scores in basic science?

2.  What is the relative effect of guided-inquiry and lecture methods on students’ mean interest scores in basic science?

3.  What is the influence of gender on mean achievement scores of students taught basic science using guided-inquiry and lecture method?

4.  What is the influence of gender on mean achievement scores of students taught basic science using guided-inquiry and lecture method?

5.  What  is  the  interactive  effect  of  teaching  method  and  gender  on  students’  mean achievement scores in basic science?

6.  What is the interactive effect of teaching method and gender on students’ mean interest scores in basic science?

Hypotheses

The  following null hypotheses (Ho) were formulated and will  be tested at  0.05% level of significance:

HO1:   There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught basic sciences using guided inquiry and lecture methods.

HO2:   There is no significant difference in the mean interest scores of students taught basic science using the two methods.

HO3:   There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught basic sciences using the two methods.

HO4:  There is no significant difference in the mean interest scores of male and female students taught basic sciences using the two methods.

HO5: There is no significant interaction effect of teaching methods and gender on students’ mean achievement scores in basic science

HO6: There is no significant interaction effect of teaching method and gender on student’s mean interest scores in basic science.

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