TOWARDS ENHANCING SCIENCE TEACHING PROCESSES: EFFECT OF DRAWING AND LIFE SPECIMEN TEACHING TOOLS (DLSTT) AND DRAWING TEACHING TOOL (DTT) ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of drawing and live specimen teaching tools (DLSTT) and drawing teaching tool (DTT) on students’ attitude in biology among senior secondary students in the Enugu educational zone. To guide the study, three research questions were posed and three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 significant level. Quasi-experimental design, specifically the non-equivalent control group design was employed in this study while the area of this study was Enugu Education zone of Enugu State. A sample size of one hundred and forty-seven (147) SS2 biology students (60 boys and 87 girls) from four intact classes drawn from two schools with two intact classes each using multi-stage sampling technique was used for the study. One group was used for experimental (taught with DLSTT = 63 having 28 boys and 35 girls) and the other group was used as control group (taught with DTT = 84 having 32 boys and 52 girls). The instruments developed for data collection in this study was Students’ Attitude in Biology Inventory (SABI) which was structured in four-point rating scale with the following four response options to which numerical value were assigned thus: strongly agree (SA) = 4, Agree (A) = 3 Disagree (D) = 2 and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1; with an internal consistency reliability coefficient of 0.74 arrived at using Cronbach’s alpha formula. All the research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05% level of significance.The results of the study revealed that Combining Drawing and Life Specimen Teaching Tools (DLSTT) led to higher attitude scores than using Drawing Teaching Tool (DTT) alone [(2037.585) p<.000], Male and female students taught with DLSTT showed similar attitude scores with no significant difference [(.613) p>.435] and There was no significant interaction between gender and teaching tool (DLSTT vs. DTT) on attitude, though DLSTT groups performed better overall [(.090) p>.765]. In line with the findings of the study, the educational implications of the findings were highlighted, and the recommendations were equally proffered among others departments, faculties, institutions and the government in extension should provide continuous professional development opportunities for biology teachers on how to use these teaching tools in teaching to enhance their skills in utilizing DLSTT effectively, irrespective of gender.