EFFECTS OF MEANING FOCUS, PRACTICE AND INVENTION, STRATEGIES ON PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ECOLOGY
1Ogundiwin Oluyemi A. and 2Ahmed Aminat A.
1Department of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan.
2Department of Integrated Science, School of Science, Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, Oyo state.
E-mail: yemiogundiwin@yahoo.com, ahmedadekemi@gmail.com
Abstract: Learners should not be in position of passive recipient of fact handed down by the teacher. Hence, there is need to expose students to strategies which makes students demonstrate mastery and be a problem solver. This study, determined effects of meaning focus strategy, Practice and Invention strategy, on senior secondary school students problem solving skills in ecological aspect of Biology. This study employs pretest, posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design.. The sample consists of 254 Senior Secondary Schools II students from Six Senior Secondary in Ibadan Municipality. Four instruments were used, it include Problem Solving Skills on Ecological Concept (PSSEC),Cognitive Style Test (CST),Teacher’s Guide on Meaning Focus Strategy (TIGMFS),Teacher’s Guide on Practice and Invention Strategy (TIGPIS),Teacher’s Guide on Conventional strategy(TIGCS),Evaluation Sheet for Assessing Teachers Performance on the use of the strategies (ESAT) . .Two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analysed using ANCOVA. There was a significant main effect of Treatment groups on the students’ posttest Problem solving skillsscores (F(2,242) = 55.116 , P<.05, =.318). Practice and Invention Strategy had the highest Problem solving skills mean score of ( = 14.815) followed by Meaning focus Strategy by ( = 13.893) and lastly followed by Conventional Strategy ( = 8.139). This is a pointer to the urgent need for efforts in Nigerian schools to concentrate on the use of Meaning focus and Practice and Invention Strategies particularly in the teaching of problem solving skills in ecological concepts in biology.