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Science EducationESUT · Faculty of Education
Research ArticleOpen Access

Effects of Inquiry Based Teaching Strategy and Gender on Secondary School Students' Academic Achievement in Stereochemistry in Enugu Education Zone

Cynthia O. Omeje1*, Mary I. Ugwu1

  1. 1Department of Science Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu, Nigeria

* Corresponding author: Cynthia O. Omeje

Abstract

The students' consistent low performance in internal and external examinations undermined the efficacy of chemistry teachers' methods of instruction. Thus, the purpose of the research is to find out how inquiry-based learning can impact students' academic achievement in stereochemistry in Enugu education zone. The study was guided by two research questions and three research hypotheses. The study employed a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. 4,532 SS2 Chemistry students made up the study's population. A combination of random and purposive sampling procedure was used to select 96 students. While the control group received instruction via lectures, the experimental group was taught using an inquiry-based teaching strategy. The Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) was the instrument used for data collection, and its reliability index was evaluated using Kuder-Richardson's formula-20 which yielded coefficient of 0.84. The mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data. The findings demonstrated that students exposed to the inquiry-based teaching strategy outperformed their peers who received instruction via lectures. For improved students' achievement, it was recommended that Chemistry teachers should use inquiry based teaching strategy when teaching chemistry.

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Publication history

Published
1 July 2024

Copyright & licence. © 2024 the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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