Effects of two innovative instructional delivery strategies on junior secondary school students’ achievement in basic science

Abstract

The study investigated effects of two innovative instructional delivery strategies on junior secondary school students’ achievement in Basic Science and Technology. The population comprised 3050 JSII students in 41 public co-educational junior secondary schools in Karu LGA of Nasarawa state made up of 1701 male students and 1349 female students. A quasi-experimental pre-test, posttest nonequivalent group research design was employed as design and without a control group. Through multistage random sampling, 2 intact JSII classes were selected with sample size of 121. Using balloting, one of the classes was assigned as experimental group taught using sensory stimulation strategy and the other with inquiry strategy. The instrument used for data collection was Basic Science and Technology Achievement Test (BSTAT) with a reliability coefficient of BSTAT is 0.82 analyzed using Spearman Brown rank order correlation. Two research questions were formulated with corresponding hypotheses and were tested at 0.05 level of significance for the study. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA statistics. The study revealed significantly higher achievement for students taught Basic Science and Technology concepts using sensory stimulation as against those taught using inquiry strategies. Though male students achieved higher than their female counterparts when taught using sensory stimulation strategy, the difference is not significant. It is recommended that teachers of Basic Science and Technology should adopt sensory stimulation strategy in their instructional delivery approach. The multiple appeals to students’ senses by sensory stimulation strategy tends to make learning pleasurable and supports meta-cognitive processes which aids easy remembering, reduces agitation and increases alertness during learning.