EFFECTS OF EDUTAINMENT AUGMENTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDE OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of edutainment augmented with Think-Pair-Share (TPS), Reciprocal Peer Teaching (RPT) and Think Aloud Pair Problem Solving (TAPPS) collaborative settings on the academic performance and attitude of senior secondary students taught biology. The study employed a quasi-experimental design comprising of pretest, posttest and retention test using non-equivalent and non-randomized groups. The population for the study was the entire 63 public secondary schools in Abuja of which three sample schools were selected using purposive sampling techniques. Each school was randomly assigned to TPS,
RPT and TAPPS collaborative setting. The edutainment simulation instructional package was administered to the three groups and the performance and attitude of the students were measured at pretest and posttest with the aid of the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and the Attitude towards Biology Questionnaire (ATBQ)
items. Findings revealed that the use of the edutainment packages significantly increased students' performance. Results from ANCOVA analysis revealed that all three collaborative settings had similar effects on the performance of the students. This study also revealed that the use of edutainment resulted in better
retention scores for students. Thus, it is recommended that schools adopt the use of edutainment teaching strategies