Effects of Demonstration and Practical activities Teaching Method on Students’ Performance in Learning Biology among NCE Students in FCE, Zaria

Abstract

This study sought to determine the impact of practical and demonstrative approaches on students’ psychomotor performance in learning Biology among NCE students in FCE Zaria, Kaduna State. In essence, the researchers wanted to investigate which instructional method (hands-on practical work or teacher demonstration) was more effective in developing the practical skills (psychomotor domain) of college-level Biology students. Two research questions and two hypotheses were developed. A 1,007 (one thousand and seven) sample of NCE II students was employed in the study, which had a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, post test, and control group. The Biology Achievement Test (BAT), which was taken from their biological practical guidebook, BIO 224, was the instrument used for data collection. Two departmental experts evaluated the face and content validity of the instruments. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was performed to determine the instrument's reliability using the test-retest approach, and the instrument's reliability was determined to be 0.75 coefficients. Research topics were addressed using the mean and standard deviation. The 0.05 threshold of significance was applied to the hypothesis test using an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and independent t-test at p<0.05 level. The results demonstrate that students' psychomotor performance is enhanced when various instructional methodologies are combined with realworld activities as the outcome also demonstrates that there is a notable difference in the effects of demonstration and practical approaches on students' psychomotor performance in biology learning. Furthermore, the study found out that there was no significant difference in mean psychomotor performance of male and female students exposed to practical activities. To balance the theoretical and practical components of teaching biology, it was suggested that the government set up workshops, seminars, and training programmes for both biology instructors and laboratory personnel.

Keywords: Practical Activities, Psychomotor, Performance & Lecture Method