EFFECTS OF GUIDED DISCOVERY APPROACH ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ECOLOGY IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of guided discovery approach on students’ academic performance in ecology among Senior Secondary I students in Sokoto metropolis. The population of the study comprised of 13,045 students offering Biology in the 43 secondary schools within Sokoto metropolis. The researcher used stratified random sampling to select the sample 521 students and used purposive sampling technique to select intact classes from each sampled school. The instruments used for collection of data are Ecology Performance Test, lesson plans and teaching modules. Three hypotheses were tested using t-test technique at alpha level of 0.05. The results obtained from the analysis shows that students in experimental group (i.e. students taught using guided discovery) performed better than those in control group (i.e. students taught using traditional method). This is an indication that students taught with guided discovery method performed significantly better than those taught with traditional method. It was also found that male students taught ecology with guided discovery performed better than their female counterparts. Students in private schools taught ecology with guided discovery also performed better than their counterparts in public schools. It was recommended that there is need for an in service training of biology teachers to be exposed to the use of guided discovery in teaching ecology and other biological concepts