Guided inquiry strategy as panacea for students poor academic performance in biology for sustainable development

Abstract

This study determines the effect of guided inquiry strategy as panacea for students poor Academic Performance in Biology for Sustainable Development in teaching and learning. The research design used for the study was quasi-experimental design. The study population consisted of one thousand two hundred and twenty five (1225) SS II Biology students drawn from the twenty nine senior secondary schools in Ringim Educational zone of Jigawa state, Nigeria. The sample of the study was made up of one hundred and thirty seven (137) SS II students randomly chosen from two schools in the population. The two schools selected were pretested to establish their equivalence in academic performance in Biology. One school was randomly assigned as experimental group and was taught using guided inquiry strategy while the other school was used as a control group and was taught using lecture method. The two schools were both posttest and post posttest to determine students’ performance and retention of Biology. data were collected and analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and t-test to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Finding from the study revealed a significant difference between the students exposed to guided inquiry strategy (experimental group) and those exposed to lecture method (control group) with respect to academic performance and retention. There was, however, no significant difference in academic performance between male and female students exposed to guided inquiry strategy. Based on these results, it was concluded that the guided inquiry strategy enhances academic performance and retention of as well as gender friendlily among Biology students than the lecture method at senior secondary schools.