REVIEW OF AFRICAN EDUCATIONAL STUDIES (RAES) – Volume Two Number One
Abstract
The study investigated relative effects of guided inquiry instructional approach on retention ability in basic science by secondary school students. To carry out this study, two research questions and two null hypotheses was formulated. The design for the study was a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test design. The sample for the study comprised of One hundred and thirty four (134) secondary school Basic science students. This study was conducted in two Co-educational Secondary school drawn for the study through simple random sampling. One of the Co-educational schoolis assigned to the treatment group and the other to the control group. In each schoolintact classes were used for the study. The treatment group was taught Basic science concepts using guided inquiry instructional approach while the control group was taught using convectional teaching method. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using the Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA) at an alpha level of 0.05. The result revealed that guided inquiry instructional approach is superior to the convectional teaching method in facilitating retention ability in Basic science. The researcher therefore, recommended that guided inquiry instructional approach should be used in junior second dary school teaching and learning of Basic science and there is need for an urgent curriculum review to accommodate guided inquiry instructional approach as a method of instruction in the teaching of Basic science in junior secondary school.