EFFECT OF BIOLOGY PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY STUDENTS

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Biology practical activities on the academic achievements of senior secondary school biology students in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State. The study adopted pretest posttest non-randomized quasi experimental design. Four research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. One hundred and twenty (120) senior secondary school biology students were sampled from the population of 490 SS II students. Four schools were sampled out of 13 Government Secondary Schools in Awgu L.G.A. Instrument for data collection was Biology Achievement Test (BAT) consisting of 21 multiple-choice test items was constructed. The instrument was validated by three experiments one in measurement and evaluation and two in biology education. The reliability test was done using Kuder-Richardson (K-R20) which gave a reliability index of 0.74. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while hypothesis were tested using t-test. The findings of the study showed that students taught biology using practical activities performed better than their counterparts using conventional method. The result also showed that gender has significant difference on students’ performance when taught with practicals. The researchers therefore recommended that teachers should employ practical activities in teaching biology to enhance students’ performance.