Effects of Ethno-Science Teaching Strategy towards Improving Students Interest in Agricultural Sciences in Secondary Schools in Abia State

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of ethno-science teaching strategy on interest of students in Agricultural Sciences in Secondary schools. Two research questions were posed and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The Quasi-experimental design was employed. Using a purposive sampling technique. A sample of 132 Agricultural Science students which comprised 63 students randomly assigned to the Control group and 69 students randomly assigned to the Experimental group was used for the study. The 63 Agricultural Science students randomly assigned to the Control (Lecture group) comprised 35 male students and 28 female students. The 69 students assigned to the Experimental (Ethnoscience) comprised 38 male students and 31 female students. The sample of the study was drawn from 4 secondary schools selected from two Local Government area from One Education Zone. A face validated Measure of Agricultural Science Interest Scale (MASIS) was administered to both groups of students before and after the experiment. The reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.83 which was derived using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) statistics. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer research questions and ANCOVA statistics was used to test the null hypotheses. Findings revealed that ethno-science had a significant effect on the interest of students in Agricultural Science and gender was not a significant factor on students’ interest in Agricultural Science. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that ethno-science should be adopted in teaching and learning process of   Agricultural Science in secondary, since it was effective in improving the interest of students. Also gender should not be a discriminating factor when adopting ethno-science teaching strategy.