EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO GENETIC TERMINOLOGY STRATEGY ON ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION AMONG BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN JABA LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated on the Effect of Exposure to Genetic Terminology Strategy (EGTS) and Conventional Teaching Strategy (CTS) on the achievement and retention in Genetics among Biology Students in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State. It adopted a non- randomized, pretest, posttest, post-posttest, control group quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study comprised of 1,950 S.S II students from public secondary schools in the study area out of which 1,001 were male and 949 was female. Krejcie & Morgan Sampling Table was used to draw the sample, whereby for 1001 male students; 276 was recommended and for 949 female students 274 was recommended. For the sake of this study, purposive sampling technique was adopted; where 65 and 55 was used as sampled size respectively. Genetic Achievement Test (GAT) was used as the instrument for data collection. Pretest was administered to the two groups after which the Experimental Group (EG) was exposed to treatment for five weeks using the EGTS and the CG taught the same concepts using the CTS for the same period. Posttest was later administered to the EG and CG after the treatment to determine the achievement. Four weeks after the posttest was administered, post- posttest was also administered to the EG and CG to determine their level of retention. Descriptive statistic of means and standard deviation were used to answer the two research questions raised while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the corresponding formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significant. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that biology teachers should adopt the EGTS for teaching of genetics as this will enable them to cater for the diverse learning needs of the students in terms of their cognitive achievement and retention in genetics and biology generally.