EFFECTS OF GUIDED- INQUIRY AND PROBLEM- SOLVING INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES ON BASIC- SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS’ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION AMONG UNITY COLLEGES IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated Effects of Guided- Inquiry and Problem-solving instructional Approaches on Basic-Science and Technology Students’ Achievement and Retention among Unity Colleges in North Central Nigeria. Factorial 2x2x3 Experimental design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisting of Sixteen thousand two hundred and forty (16240) Basic science and Technology students 111 (JSS3) from twenty four (24) Unity Colleges in North central, Nigeria. The sample size of 373 (198 male and 175 female) Junior Secondary School Basic Science and Technology Students of class 3 (JSS II1) were randomly drawn from three states of North Central (FCT, Niger & Nassarawa) Nigeria. The research instrument used was Basic Science and Technology Students’ Achievement Test (BSTSAT). The instrument was validated by Senior Lecturers in Science Education from University of Abuja and Senior Lecturers in Measurement and Evaluation from FCT College of Education, Zuba. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to establish reliability coefficient and 0.86 was obtained for the (BSTSAT). Two (2) research questions were raised with their corresponding null hypotheses. The research questions were answered using Mean ( ) and Standard Deviation (SD) while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA) and Sidak Post Hoc Multiple Comparison (SPMC). From the findings, it reveals that Guided Inquiry (GI) and Problem Solving Approaches (PSA) had higher significant achievement mean scores than the Traditional Lecture method, it reveals that GI and PSA demonstrated a great enhancement on achievement mean scores of Basic Science and Technology students’ with different ability levels compare with their counterparts under Traditional Lecture method.  Equally revealed from the study that GI and PSA influences the retention mean scores of Basic Science and Technology students significantly than the students under Traditional Lecture method. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: Guided inquiry and Problem solving should be incorporated into the teaching method adopted to Basic science and Technology since it had the capability to enhance the students’ academic achievement and retention