EFFECT OF GUIDED DISCOVERY INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE STUDENTS’ IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN UMUAHIA NORTH, ABIA STATE

Abstract

This study investigated effect of guided discovery instructional method on academic achievement of Agricultural Science students’ in senior secondary schools in Umuahia North, Abia State, Nigeria. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study is 1,841 students offering Agricultural Science. 424 students was randomly selected using intact class which served as sample for the study. The instrument used for data collection is Agricultural Science Achievement Test (ASAT) on ornamental plant, crop diseases, crop pests and weeds. The instrument was validated by three experts and reliability coefficient of 0.89 was obtained using test retest. Three research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while three hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. The results obtained from the analysis showed that students in experimental group performed better than the control group. The result also showed that the female students recorded a higher achievement mean score than the male students which indicated that there was a significant interaction effect of treatment using guided discovery instructional method and gender on the mean achievement scores in Agricultural Science. Based on this findings, it was concluded that guided discovery instructional method helps students to be responsible in self-learning contrary to conventional method and it is an appropriate method for teaching Agricultural Science. It was recommended that the Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) should engage Agricultural Science teachers for an in service training to be exposed to the use of guided discovery method in teaching.

KEYWORDS: Guided discovery, crop diseases, crop pests, weeds.

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CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Oketoobo, Emmanuel Akintunde, Department of Agricultural and Vocational Education, College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. oketooboea@gmail.com