EFFECT OF CONTEXT-BASED LEARNING ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY

Abstract

Biology is one of aspects of science that study living things in their environment and is an on-going science process that
allows scientists and students to conduct scientific investigations which are very useful in discovering new things.
However, students’ achievement is not encouraging. Researchers have therefore pointed out the need for the adoption of
student-centred instructional strategies to address this problem. Literature have recognized the use of many strategies in
enhancing students learning outcomes in other science subject but few studies have been carried out on students’ academic
achievement in biology using context-based learning. This study, therefore, examined the effect of context-based learning
on secondary school students’ academic achievement in biology in Lagos State. The moderating effect of gender was also
investigated. The research design is a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. Two
schools were selected from the Kosofe Local Council by random sampling. Four intact classes of SS1 students were
selected from each of the schools. A total of 294 students participated in the study. Students were randomly assigned to
context-based learning and control group. The study lasted for 5 weeks. The Biology Achievement Test (BAT) research
instrument was used for the study. The reliability of the instrument was established using the Kuder–Richardson Formula
20 (KR-20) which produced a reliability coefficient of 0.713. Two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
Analysis of covariance and Scheffe post hoc test were used to analyses data. The ANCOVA result revealed a significant
effect of treatment on students’ academic achievement in biology, F (2, 459) = 341.45, p < .001, with a large effect size,
partial η² = .598. The two-way interaction effect of treatment and gender on student learning outcomes was not significant.
Context-based learning enhances students’ academic achievement. Context-based learning strategies should therefore be
adopted in teaching of biology in senior secondary school.