EFFECTS OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND GUIDED-DISCOVERY INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE AND RETENTION IN BIOLOGY IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the Effect of Computer-Assisted and Guided Discovery Instructional Strategies on Secondary School Students’ Performance and Retention in Biology in Taraba State, Nigeria. The nature of the Computer-Assisted Instruction used was the Power-point Presentation. The pre-test, post-test, post-post-test Quasi experimental design was used for the study. The population of the study was 1,290 SSII biology students. Multistage sampling was adopted to determine the schools. Two government owned co-educational schools of SSII classes were purposively selected. This was followed by the sampling of one intact classroom from each of the sampled schools using random sampling making a total of 2 intact classrooms. One of the two intact classes was designated experimental group with 75 students while the other class was designated control group with 55 students. A sample size of 160 students SSII students were drawn from the two intact classes. Two objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses were raised to guide the study. The instrument for data collection was Biology Performance Test (BPT). BPT has a reliability coefficient of 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Results obtained indicated that a significant difference exists in the mean performance scores of students taught skeletal systems using CAI (30.27) and those taught using GDI (24.68) as well the mean retention scores of students in CAI (28.62) and GDI (21.55). It was concluded that Computer-Assisted Instruction is more effective than guided discovery strategy in promoting students’ performance and retention in biology. It was recommended that teachers of biology should adopt Computer-Assisted Instruction as a teaching Strategy to promote students’ performance and retention, and Government and School authorities should seek to provide adequate, well-equipped Computer laboratory for the effective teaching of Biology in order to boost students’ performance and retention.