Effect of Hands-On, Activity Base Strategy on Students’ Interest in Basic Science in Kwande, Benue State.

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of hands-on, activity base strategy on students’ interest in Basic Science in Kwande, Benue State, with a focus on gender as a moderating variable. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. A pretest-posttest control group, non-equivalent quasi-experimental design was used for the study. The sample size of 167 students from intact classes were drawn from the population of 2,523 (1315 males and 1208 females) Basic 8 students from public secondary schools in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State. The four schools were assigned to experimental and control groups. The Basic Science Interest Rating Scale (BSIRS) was used for data collection. The BSIRS items of the instrument were subjected to face and content validation. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha formula. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was found to be 0.84. A hands-on, activity base lesson plan was used for classroom instruction in the experimental group while the control group used lesson plan on lecture method for instruction. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings from the study revealed that learners taught using the hands-on, activity base strategy significantly improved students interest more than those in the control group. The study also revealed that the male students showed higher interest in Basic Science than their female counterpart after treatment with hands-on, activity base strategy. Based on the findings, it was recommended that hands-on, activity base strategy should be used in teaching habitat in Basic Science in Basic 8 to enhance students’ interest in the subject