EFFECTS OF ABILITY GROUPING ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN RIVERS STATE

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EFFECTS OF ABILITY GROUPING ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN RIVERS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Biology which is always regarded as a soft or easy science option (rightly or wrongly) is the one chosen by many students to satisfy the conditions for one to qualify for Senior Secondary School Certificate in Nigeria. As a result Biology always suffers the effect of large class size. This hinders the possibility of individualized instruction or personal attention to students specially those of low ability, hence the consistent poor performance in biology. This agrees with the observation made by Salau (1996) on the effect of class size on students’ achievement in mathematics. He stated thus ‘as long as Mathematics is taught by whatever method to large groups of heterogeneous students in terms of ability, so that individual attention and a corresponding focus on analysis of individual student’s problems are difficult, the problem of poor performance will remain’ p. 57.

The overcrowded Biology classroom leaves no space for the teacher to move around while teaching, leaves him/her with no option than to stand in front of the classroom shouting on top of his/her voice to those who care to listen. He/she hardly takes notice of many who are sleeping at the back. Some of them can only wake up to join others in echoing ‘yes Sir’ or ‘yes Aunty’ whenever the question comes “do you understand?”. The teacher may erroneously interpret this to mean that everybody is being carried along.

One of the strategies that might help Biology teachers to be in full control of their classes and give individual attention when needed may be to teach students in ability groups. Ability group instructional strategy is a way of cutting down class size and may therefore be more beneficial in teaching and learning especially in Biology with large class size and overcrowded classrooms. Again, from literature available to this researcher, there seems to be no consensus on whether students perform better when they are taught in a heterogeneous setting of mixed ability levels or whether they perform better when they are thought in different ability groups. For instance, Salau (1996) fond that students perform better in Mathematics when they are thought in different ability groups than when they are thought in a heterogenous group. On the other hand, Njoku 1998 and Inyang & Ekpenyong (2000) both working in Chemistry found that Chemistry students perform better when they are thought in a mixed ability group than in separate ability groups. It becomes necessary therefore to carry out such study in Biology where classes are usually very large. Many researchers are of the opinion that small group learning promotes academic achievement while large class size, on the other hand, impacts negatively on academic performance of students (Salau, 1996; Jimoh, 1999; Johnson, D.W., Maruvama, G., Johnson, R., Nelson,

D. & Shun, L. 1980; Sharan, 1980 both in Inyang & Ekpenyong, 2000; Onwirhiren, 2005).

Studies have established that peer tutoring is an effective strategy to enhance achievement of students (for example DuPaul, G.J., & Henningson, P.N., 1993). That students open up more easily when they are together with mates of similar interest and ability is a well known fact. This may have informed the suggestion made by Nwagbo (1997) that categorizing students into levels of scientific literacy for instructional purpose might lead to effective teaching and learning in Science. Many feel shy to contribute in discussions where the group is of mixed ability for fear of being laughed at when they make contributions that might sound stupid to others. For this same reason, they are afraid to answer questions in the class.

Given the above premise, it is possible that the conventional method whereby students are taught Biology in a large heterogeneous group is contributory to the poor academic achievement being experienced and reported over the years. In that case, one wonders if ability grouping instructional strategy can offer an affective remediation to this persistent poor performance in Biology and change the status quo. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate the efficacy of Ability Grouping Mode of Instruction on the achievement of Senior Secondary II (SS II) students in biology. The study hopes to provide

an empirical base for decision-making by educational planners and Biology teachers on whether to continue the existing practice of teaching Biology in mixed ability groups or change to teaching in separate ability groups.

The area of Biology that was of interest to this study was Genetics. The choice of Genetics stems from the fact that it is one of the areas in Biology identified as being difficult and abstract and hardly ever properly handled by teachers (Oyewale, 1982; Mang, 2000 and Ikitde, 2004). According to Oyewale (1982), Genetics and its related areas such as Evolution and Variability were not popular in schools. In his study, Mang (2000) found out that genetics was perceived by Biology teachers as the most difficult of all the topics he listed. Yet, Genetics has been identified as being very important and relevant to many areas affecting man’s life like Agriculture, Medicine, Biochemistry, Microbiology and the Natural Sciences (Olarewaju & Jimoh, 1995). Thus, the importance of teaching this aspect of Biology properly to students cannot be over-emphasized. It therefore becomes necessary to identify teaching strategies that can enhance students’ performance in this area.

Statement of the problem

Measuring the learning performance of students have been an important factor for years. This work gives further explanation and analysis into effects of ability grouping on the academic performance of biology students in rivers state

Objective of the study

The main objective of this study is to find out whether or not students’ performance in Biology in general and Genetics in particular will improve by using Ability Grouping Mode of Instruction. The result will therefore justify or, disapprove the current practice of mixed ability mode of instruction generally used by teachers.

Two research questions and three hypotheses guided the conduct of this study.

Research Questions:

1. How will students of different ability levels taught Biology under Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (AGIM) and those taught under Mixed Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (MAGIM) perform in Genetics Achievement Test (GAT)?

2. How will male and female students of different ability levels taught Genetics under Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (AGIM) and their counterparts taught under Mixed Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (MAGIM) perform in Genetics Achievement Test (GAT)?

Hypotheses:

1. There is no significant difference in the post test scores of students in different ability levels taught with Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (AGIM) and those taught with Mixed Ability Grouping Instructional Mode (MAGIM).

2. There is no significant effect of grouping instructional mode on students’ achievement in Biology according to gender.

3. There will be no significant interaction between students’ ability levels and grouping instructional mode.

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