EFFECTS OF METAPHOUR INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT ON THE CONCEPT OF SYMBIOSIS AND PARASITISM IN MINNA METROPOLIS.

Abstract

The study examined Efects of Metaphor Instructional Strategy on Secondary School Biology Students Achievement on the Concepts of Symbiosis anad Parasitism in Minna Metropolis. Increase in students' inability to comprehend and cope with the basic scientific concepts necessitated the search for a more effective classroom instructional strategy to improve their achievement. The design adopted for the study was a Pretest-Posttest Experimental-Control Group. A total of 120 students in Senior Secondary class two (SS II) randomly selected from four secondary schools in Minna metropolis made up the sample for the study SS (II) students from two schools were randomly assigned to experimental group and the remaining two schools to control group. The experimental group was taught the concepts of symbiosis and parasitism using Metaphor Instructional Strategy while the control group on the other hand was taught the same concepts using traditional teaching method. The instrument for data collection was a 30-item multiple choice test on the concepts of symbiosis and parasitism. The instrument was validated by biology experts and its reliability determined as 0.91 using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r). t-test statistics was used to analyze the data, Analysis of data revealed that metaphor instructional strategy was a more efective instructional strategy than the traditional teaching method (t = 15.71, df = 59, P <0.05) in enhancing students' achievement on the concepts of symbiosis and parasitism in biology. It also revealed that there was no gender difference (t = 0.95, df 29, P< 0.05) among the students in the experimental group. Based on these findings, recommendations were made among which include the adoption of melaphor as an instructional strategy in our educational system and that, government should sponsor Teachers to attend training courses on the use of metaphor as an instructional strategy.