ABSTRACT: The study of Teaching Methods and Academic Performance of Students in Biology was conducted in Ika Local Government Area. Two research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. The population for the study consist all the students who studied Biology in senior secondary two (SS2) in public secondary schools in the area. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents in the study. Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was the main instrument used for data collection. The data generated from the instruments were analyzed using independent t-test statistics. The result showed that there is no significant difference between academic performance of students taught Biology with guided enquiry and lecture methods. It also indicated that there is no significant difference between students taught Biology with demonstration method and discussion method. It was therefore recommended that government should encourage and motivate supervision in school and equally made provision for laboratory equipment in school, for teacher to make good use of them during a course of instruction.
Teaching Methods and Academic Performance of Students in Biology
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable development in any Nation. Education is a process by which a person is intentionally guided for his development and the development of his society. It is the deliberate effect to accelerate rate of development and general improvement of the human race (Sunday, 2005). These objectives of education cannot be achieved without the process of teaching and learning, which largely depend on the teaching methods used by teachers generally and Biology teachers in particular.
The teaching of Biology by some teachers is always a very difficult task because Biology is a branch of science that deals with living and non-living things.
Effective and efficient instruction leads to effective and efficient learning which depends to a greater extent on an effective classroom communication between the teacher and the learner. Effective instruction which produces effective learning to a large extent depends on the effective interaction and sharing of ideas between the teacher and the learners which result in good academic performance.
Education particularly that in science and technology is the factor for the production of the needed technologies, technicians and craft men as well as skilled artisans who are required to transform the nation’s economy and elevate Nigeria from a developing nation to a developed nation (Moses, 2003).
The acquisition of an appropriate scientific and technological skill is necessary to cope with the challenges presented by the evolving needs of our industries and ever growing non-formal sector. Education and training system that respond adequately to these demands will therefore contribute to the effects to overcome the growing rate of unemployment and marginalization of majority of the populace.
According to Adesom (2008), Biology teaching is supposed to be result oriented and students centered, and this can only be achieved when students are willing to learn during lesson delivery using appropriate methods and resources in the teaching learning situation. Student by nation are curious, they need to be actively involved in the learning process in which they are continuously equipping, testing, speculating and building their own personal construct and knowledge. It is only by personalizing such knowledge that it becomes valid, meaningful and useful to them.
In Biology student need to actively construct their own personal awareness and meaning. To substantiate the argument Usume and Onocha (2009) opined that the human brain is not a passive consumer of information, but to learn with understanding they learn must actively construct meaning of what is to be learnt.
Despite the prime position Biology occupies in our educational system and the efforts made by researchers to enhance better performance, students performance in biology and other science subjects in general are not encouraging some of the reasons identified for this failure are laboratory inadequacy, teachers attitude, examination malpractice, time constraint for carrying out practical, non-coverage of syllabus, class-size, non professionalism and inadequate and ineffective teaching method adopted by some biology teachers.
The method of teaching biology in secondary school be based on practical which is aimed at giving the students the opportunity to gain meaningful learning, acquire appropriate skill and attitude that enable them like and contribute to the national development.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Biology is one of the subjects taught in senior secondary schools and is required for admission into tertiary institution if one wants to study some science course. However the performance of students in the subject is poor due mostly to poor teaching method.
Many seminar and conference papers have been written on teaching methods and academic performance of students in biology in recent times. Scholars are of the opinion that the teaching method used by teachers in teaching biology students is one decline. It is very disappointing to note that even though there are so many activities to help students improve their performance in biology, many do not perform creditably in internal and external examination it has also been observed that some teachers use in-appropriate teaching methods during their course of instruction delivery.
Teaching Methods and Academic Performance of Students in Biology
Moreover, it has been observed that most secondary schools do not have equipment in their laboratories. It is against this background, therefore that investigating into the teaching methods and academic performance of students in biology in Ika Local Government Area becomes an imperative.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of teaching method on the academic performance of students in biology in Ika Local Government Area.
