EFFECTS OF ACTIVITY-BASED TEACHING STRATEGY ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

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Department of Education

ABSTRACT
The study investigated effects of Activity-Based teaching strategy on academic achievement and retention in Basic Science concepts among junior secondary two students. A sample of 80 JS 2 Basic Science students were randomly selected made up of 37 male and 43 female, pre – tested and categorized into experimental and control groups. The subjects in the experimental group were taught measurement concepts using the Activity-Based teaching strategy and their achievement and retention abilities were compared with that of the control group who were taught same concepts using lecture method. Pretest, post test and postpost test data were analyzed to determine the group equivalence, achievement and retention abilities of the students in the experimental and the control groups. Three hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics of P-value 0.05 and the following major findings were made: Students exposed to Activity-Based teaching strategy i.e. (Experimental group) achieved significantly higher than their counterparts taught using lecture method. Students exposed to Activity-Based instructional strategy retained the learnt concepts significantly better than their counterparts exposed to lecture instructional strategy; there was no significant difference in academic achievement between the male and female students exposed to Activity-Based and lecture instructional strategies. On the basis of these findings, some recommendations were made, one of which is that teachers of Basic science should use Activity-Based instructional strategy in their teaching as it enhances achievement and retention among JSS2 students.