EFFECT OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TEACHING STRATEGY ON ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY IN OGIDI EDUCATION ZONE

Abstract

This study examined the effect of GOTS on the achievement and interest of secondary school students in Biology in the Ogidi Education Zone. Three research questions guided the study, and four null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental design, specifically a non-randomized pretest–posttest control group design, was adopted. The population comprised 2,267 Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) Biology students in co-educational public schools. A sample of 100 students was drawn from two schools using a multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected with the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and the Biology Interest Scale (BIS), validated by three experts. Reliability was established with KR-20 yielding 0.84 for BAT and Cronbach's Alpha yielding 0.88 for BIS. Both groups were taught some selected Biology concepts; the experimental group was taught with GOTS, while the control group received the conventional lecture method (CLM). The collected data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, and ANCOVA. Findings revealed that the mean academic achievement and interest scores of students taught with GOTS were higher than those taught with CLM, suggesting the effectiveness of GOTS over CLM. Gender had no significant influence on achievement and interest, and there was no significant interaction effect of teaching strategy and gender. This study concludes that GOTS is more effective in improving students’ academic achievement and interest in Biology. It is recommended that Biology teachers adopt graphic organisers in classroom instruction and that teacher education programmes emphasise their use in methods courses.