Effects of Ethno-Science Teaching Strategy on Students’ Academic Achievement in Agricultural Sciences in Secondary Schools in Abia State

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of ethno-science teaching strategy on the academic achievement 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. 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 25 students from schools located in the Urban Areas and 38 students from schools located in the Rural Areas. The 69 students assigned to the Experimental (Ethnoscience) comprised 24 students from schools located in the Urban Areas and 45 students from schools located in the Rural Areas. The sample of the study was drawn from 4 secondary schools selected from two Local Government area from One Education Zone. A content validated Agricultural Science Achievement Test (ASAT) was administered to both groups of students before and after the experiment. The reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.79 which was derived using the Kuder-Richardson (KR-20) formula. 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 toward enhancing the academic achievement of students in Agricultural Science and school location was not a significant factor on students’ academic achievement in Agricultural Science. Based on the findings, it was recommended that ethno-science should be adopted in teaching and learning process of   Agricultural Science in secondary, since it was effective in enhancing the academic achievement of students. Also school location should not be a discriminating factor when adopting ethno-science teaching strategy.