Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of Argument-Based Inquiry (ABI) approach on acquisition of skills (communicating and questioning) and interest of Male and Female Senior Secondary School students in Biology. Eight research questions and twelve null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. A quasi experimental (non-equivalent control group) design was adopted for the study. 138 (58 males, 80 females) Senior Secondary School year one (SSS1) students from four co-educational public secondary schools in Oshogbo Local Government Area of Osun State were involved in the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the four co-educational senior secondary schools from 13 of such senior secondary schools in the Local Government Area. The four randomly selected schools were randomly assigned, two schools each to the experimental and the control groups. From each of the four selected schools, one intact class was randomly drawn from the SSSI classes. The regular biology teachers in each of the schools who were earlier trained on the details of the instructional sequences of ABI and Traditional Inquiry (TI) approaches were involved in teaching the subjects. The Experimental Group (EG) was taught nutrition in animals using ABI approach while the Control Group (CG) was taught the same topic with TI approach. The schools? regular time tables were used for the period of 6 weeks. Three instruments-Science Communicating and Questioning Skills Acquisition Test (SCQSAT), Biology Interest Inventory (BII), and Verbal Communicating Skills Assessment Guide (VCSAG) were used for the study. The three instruments were subjected to content and face validation. The instruments were also trial tested using test-retest method and from the data collected, the reliability coefficients of the instruments were obtained. The SCQSAT had 0.84 using Pearson-Product Moment correlation while BII had 0.74 using Cronbach?s Alpha. The determination of the inter-rater reliability for VCSAG yielded 0.69 using Kendall?s Coefficient of Concordance. The validated instruments were administered as both pre and post tests while the data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for the hypotheses. The findings among others showed that teaching biology with ABI approach enhanced the students? acquisition of skills (communicating and questioning skills) and interest in biology better than the TI approach. The implication of the findings include that science teachers should use ABI approach so that the students can acquire communicating and questioning skills. The nation will also be proud of producing next generation scientists who can defend science claims with good command of language and effectively communicate their findings to the target audience. Based on the findings, among others it was recommended that workshops, seminars, and conferences should be organized for teachers in order to sensitize them on the need to use active learning.