Effects of Scaffolding and Concept Mapping Strategies on Achievement and Retention in Biology among Secondary School Students in Obio/Akpor LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the effects of scaffolding and concept mapping on students’ achievement and retention of senior secondary students II in biology in Rivers State. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted quasi experimental design. Three (3) public governments owned senior secondary schools were purposively drawn for the study. In each of the schools used, intact classes were drawn from senior secondary two classes and assigned to scaffolding group and concept mapping group respectively and then compare their effects on the achievement of the students. The population of the study was 1173 Biology students in SS 2 of these schools and the sample of the study was 122 students in SS 2 assigned randomly. A sample of 122students comprising of 63 males and 59 female were used drawn from the study area through simple random sampling technique. The strategy was to teach the above groups using scaffolding instructional strategy, concept map or lecture method respectively and compare their effect on students’ achievement and retention in biology. Biology Achievement Test was use to collect data, Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while the hypotheses was tested using ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Bonnferonni’s test of pair-wise comparison was used to find out, in which group lies the significant effect. The results revealed that learners in scaffolding group outperform concept mapping group in both achievement and retention. It was recommended that biology teachers should adopt the scaffolding learning strategy to improve learners’ achievement and retention.