EFFECT OF GUIDED INQUIRY METHOD ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN ECOLOGY IN AGBANI EDUCATION ZONE OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of guided-inquiry method (GIM) on secondary school one (SS1) students’ interest in ecology in Agbani Education Zone, Enugu state. Two research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted quasi-experimental design specifically, non-randomized pretest and post-test control group design. Multi-stage sampling was adopted to draw a sample size of 129 (62 males and 67 females) SS 1 students from the co-educational schools in Agbani Education Zone from a population of 5,418 SS 1 students. The Ecological Concept Interest Inventory (ECII), adapted from Zumyil (2019), was the instrument used to collect data. Experts from Faculty of Education in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka validated the instrument. The internal consistency of ECII was ascertained using Cronbach's alpha technique, a coefficient of 0.89 was obtained. The control group received instruction using traditional lecture-based teaching method. The experimental group was taught ecological concepts using GIM. While Analysis of covariance was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance, mean and standard deviation were utilized to answer the research questions. Among other things, the findings revealed that GIM enhanced students' interest in ecological topics more than the traditional lecture-based teaching method. Also, when taught using GIM, gender had no discernible impact on the students' mean interest scores in ecological concepts. The study concludes that GIM had constant effect on students’ interest in ecology irrespective of gender. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that Biology teachers should be trained by the Ministry of Education and other relevant professional bodies through regular workshops, seminars, and in-service training programs on how to use GIM to improve students’ interest in Ecological Concepts.