ABSTRACT
The title of this study is “effect of activity-based instructional strategy on students’ knowledge of the interrelationship among Science, Technology and Society in senior secondary school in Benin City”. Students have naïve view about Science, Technology and Society. They often regard Science, Technology and Society as separate from each other and lacked accurate knowledge of the interrelationship among science, technology and society, as well as its impact on man and the society. It has been discovered that science teachers in public schools in Benin City still teach science using traditional method. The focus of this study therefore is to determine if activity-based instructional strategy would have effect on students’ knowledge of the interrelationship among science, technology and society than the traditional method of teaching.
To achieve this, the researcher adopted the quasi experimental research known as the pretest, posttest non-equivalent control group design for the study. There was no randomization of the classes, instead intact classes were used. Six public senior secondary schools were selected from the population using the random sampling techniques. Three schools constitute the experimental group ( Exp. Grp = 163), while the other three schools constitute the control group (Cont. Grp = 135). Each group was made up of mixed school, female school and male school. Students in the experimental group were taught using activity-based instructional strategy, while the students in the control group were taught using the traditional method. The instrument known as Test of Biology Students Knowledge of Interrelationship among Science, Technology and Society (TBSKIS) was used to collect data. The validity of the instrument was determined and it reliability value of .804 was obtain using the test, retest techniques. Data were analysed at 0.05 significant level.
The result shows a difference in the mean score of students in the two groups ( Exp. Grp. = 25.41, Cont. Grp. = 20.65), which indicates that students in the experimental group that were taught using activity-based instructional strategy have higher knowledge of the interrelationship among science, technology and society than students in the control group taught using traditional method. The calculated p value of .000 was less than the accepted alpha value of 0.05, therefore, it was significant ( P< 0.05). It shows that activity-based instructional strategy is more effective than the traditional method. It was also revealed that sex and school type had no effect on students’ knowledge of STS. However, there was significant effect of school location on students’ knowledge of interrelationship among STS. There was no interaction effect of group, sex, school location and school type on students’ knowledge of the interrelationship among STS. The regression analysis shows that group as a predictor variable contributed more to posttest score of students. Based on the results and findings, the researcher recommends among others that science teachers should use activity-based instructional method in teaching STS as this method have been found to enhance students’ knowledge of science concepts. Science teachers in public school should strive for on the job training to acquire more pedagogical skills in teaching science concepts. Government should provide science teachers with the opportunity to attend in-service training through seminar, workshop and conferences in order for science teachers to be abreast with the modern trend in science education and instructional technology. Laboratories and instructional materials should also be provided to promote activity-based learning in schools.
