Effects of Cross-Age Peer-Tutoring Strategy on Academic Performance in Genetics Concepts among Upper Basic Science Students in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64348/zije.2026419Abstract
This study investigated the effects of the Cross-Age Peer-Tutoring Strategy on students’ academic performance in genetics concepts among Upper Basic Science Students in Zaria, Kaduna State. The strategy involves a tutor with an age difference of one or two years teaching younger tutees to facilitate better understanding. A quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test control group design was employed. From a population of 8,439 students, a sample of 140 participants was selected. Purposive sampling was initially used to identify six gender-based schools, followed by simple random sampling to assign experimental and control groups. Data were collected using the Genetics Performance Test (GPT), which achieved a reliability coefficient of 0.70. Validation was conducted by experts in Science Education and Biological Sciences. T-test was used to test the hypotheses at a p≤ 0.05 significance level. Findings indicated a significant difference in mean performance scores; with the experimental group outperforming those taught via traditional methods (p=0.01). and the academic performance of male and female students was not influenced by the use of peer tutoring instructional strategy to teach genetics concepts (p= 0.50). It is recommended that Basic science teachers should make use of peer tutoring instructional strategy to teach genetics concepts in Upper Basic Secondary Schools and also they should encourage active participation of both male and female students during teaching and learning process to reduce boredom and increase students’ performance.
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