ISSN 2360-7955
Abstract
The study investigated how the 5Es constructivist instructional strategy would improve students’ interest in senior secondary school genetics in Gwer Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. The design of the study was Quasi: experimental, specifically, the pretest post-test non-equivalent control group design. A sample of 147 students from four schools, out of a population of 2,183 SSII biology students. A validated 30 item Genetics Interest Inventory (GII) was the instrument for data collection. A reliability co-efficient of 0.85 was established for the GII using Cronbach Alpha method. Out of the four schools, two schools were assigned to the experimental group while the other two to the control group. The experimental group were taught genetics using the 5Es (engagement, exploration explanation elaboration and evaluation) constructivist instructional strategy while the control group were taught using the conventional (lecture) method. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the two research questions and Analysis of Covariance. (ANCOVA) was used to test the two hypotheses at P<0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that the 5Es constructivist instructional strategy was more effective in facilitating students interest in genetics in both urban and rural schools. The study recommended among others, that the 5Es constructivist instructional strategy be adopted in our school system for teaching biology, especially genetics.
Keywords: 5Es, Constructivist Instructional Strategy, Interest, Secondary School, Genetics.