Impact of Laboratory Method on Students’ Academic Performance in Biology among Senior Secondary Schools in Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the influence of laboratory method on students academic Performance in Biology among Senior Secondary Schools in Katsina State, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research objectives, from which two research questions and two null hypotheses were analysed. The objectives achieved were to: Examine the impact of the laboratory method on Academic performance of students taught Biology concepts using the laboratory method and those taught using the conventional method in senior secondary schools of Katsina State. Determine the impact of laboratory method on Academic performance between male and female senior secondary school’s Biology students in Katsina State. The research design of the study adopted was a quasi-experimental pre-test – post-test design. The study had two groups; the experimental group was taught a biology concept using a laboratory method and the control group was taught the same biology concept using a conventional method. The population of the study was made up of twelve thousand, six hundred and twenty-four (12,624) students, comprising five thousand nine hundred and sixty-five (5,965) male students and six thousand six hundred and fifty-nine (6,659) female students. The sample size for the study consists of one hundred and fifty-eight (158) students purposively drawn from two (2) schools in Katsina State, Nigeria, using an intact class. Biology Performance Test (BPT) with a reliability coefficient of 0.887 was used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. All the hypotheses were tested using independent sample t-tests at an alpha level of 0.05. The findings of the study showed that students from the experimental group performed better than the control group; there is no significant difference in the mean academic performance scores of male and female students taught biology using the laboratory method. The study concluded that the use of the laboratory method improved the performance of Biology students better than the conventional method and was found to be gender friendly. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommends that there is a need for the Katsina state government to expose biology teachers to workshops on effective use of laboratory methods in teaching to improve the academic performance of students.