EFFECT OF WORD ASSOCIATION TEXT AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE MIND MAP ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN PLANT CLASSIFICATION IN BIOLOGY

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of Word Association Text and Conceptual Change Mind Map on Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Plant Classification in Biology. Six research questions were raised and six hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of the various instructional methods on Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Plant Classification in Biology. It was also to determine if students’ mean achievement were different by gender and by school type. It also aimed at determining if there exists an interaction and contribution effect of methods by gender and gender by school type on students’ achievement in plant classification.

The study adapted the quasi-experimental non-equivalent pretest posttest control group design. The instrument for data collection was a Biology Achievement Test (BAT) which comprised of 30 items with options A-D. The instrument was validated and the reliability was tested using the Pearson product moment correlation statistics and a correlation coefficient of 0.78 was obtained.This was used for data collection at pretest and posttest. The study population was all the public senior secondary schools in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. From the population, three coeducational schools were randomly selected while the only two single sex schools were purposively selected. The five schools were also randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. A total of 217 students participated in the study. Pretest was done in week one, treatment spanned between week two and week five while post-test was administered in week six. Hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. using inferential statistics which include: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Multiple Analysis of Variance and Multiple Regression.