Gender Influence On Reasoning Patterns And Achievement Of Nigerian Students In Genetics And Evolution
Ezechi Nnenna Grace Ph.D
epartment of Biology Education, Enugu State College of Education (Technical), Enugu.
Keywords: Gender, Reasoning patterns, Achievement, Genetics, Evolution
Abstract
The study investigated the influence of gender on students reasoning pattern and achievement in genetics and evolution.. The study was guided by two research questions and one hypothesis. Ex-post factor research design was adopted for the study. Three hundred and fifty two (352) SS3 biology students (178 males and 174 females) from four co-educational schools in Agbani Education zone were used for the study. Two instruments, Students Reasoning in Explanation of Biological Phenomena (SREBP) and Genetics and Evolution Achievement Test (GEAT) were used for data collection. The instruments were developed by the researcher. The instruments were validated by three experts and reliability co-efficient of 0.70 and 0.75 respectively established for them. The instruments were administered as both pretest and posttest. The research questions were answered using mean and percentage while the hypothesis was tested using chi-square. The result showed that there is no significant difference in the reasoning patterns of male and female students and that there is significant influence of reasoning patterns on the achievement of male and female students in genetics and evolution. The researcher recommended among others the use of appropriate innovative teaching strategies which recognizes students’ prior ideas about biological phenomena before science instructions