INFLUENCE OF LEARNING STRATEGIES OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS ON THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SOME SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN EDO-STATE

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to investigate the influence of learning strategies of biology students on their academic achievement in Oredo Local Government Area in Edo State. Four research questions were raised in the study. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and three hypotheses was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. The population of this study comprised all public senior secondary school students offering Biology in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. A total sample size of one hundred and twenty (120) students was randomly selected for this study across SS1 to SS3.

Descriptive statistics using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation in tables were used in the data analysis of the study. Also, inferential statistics were used to test the three hypotheses of the study. Hypothesis one was tested using Chi square statistics while hypothesis 2 and 3 were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistics. The research instrument that was used for data collection was structured questionnaire to seek the opinion of the respondents on the subject matter. It was however subjected to face and content validity by the researcher’s supervisor and one other expert in the department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology. The reliability was determined using 20 respondents who will not be part of the study population. However, Alpha value of 0.760 was obtained. The Data collected were analyzed using mean (x) and Standard deviation.

Result of the study revealed that: Social affective learning strategy was the most used learning strategy by the sampled biology students followed by meta-cognitive learning strategy while the least used learning strategy was cognitive learning strategy and there is a significant relationship between learning strategy adopted by Biology student and their academic performance. It was recommended among others that; School counselors should properly educate students on learning strategies so that they will be fully aware of the best learning strategies to implement during learning and 3.           For the learning strategies to be effective, biology students should know when, why and how to use learning strategies and learn to master a number of them so they can have a flexible set of learning instruments at their disposal.