Effect of Experiential Learning Approach On Students’ Biology at Secondary Level

Abstract

The objectives of the research study were to find out the effect of experiential learning approach on students’ Biology Achievement at secondary level. After the experiment, the data was thoroughly analyzed with paired and independent samples t-tests to assess the efficacy of the intervention in terms of the performance of students on various types of questions. The study results were considered against the study hypotheses and related to the available literature to determine consistency or deviation with the previous studies. To begin with, the sample population under study consists of female students taking Biology in Grade 9 and between the ages of 14-17 years. There were 70 students in the study, (34) of them belonged to the experimental group, and (36) to the control group. Baseline comparability between the two groups was proven by an insignificant p-value of .98 in the pre-test total scores recertifying that there was similarity before the intervention. This is in line with Fraenkel et al. (2012) who asserts to methodological rigor defined as baseline homogeneity in the experimental designs as an important factor in determining the real effect of interventions. The post-test analysis indicated a significant difference between the control (M = 50.22) and experimental groups (M = 39.82), (p = .00). Although this may appear to contradict the anticipated effect of the intervention to favor the experimental group, it is aligned with a report by Slavin (2002) who observed that no new interventions often lead to stronger results than conventional teaching strategies over a brief time period where external effects such as teacher expertise or student motivation are not held constant. But inside group comparisons painted a different picture. There was an overall significant improvement between the pretest measured and posttest (M = 47.12 to M = 52.24, p = .000) in the experimental group, and hence the intervention had a positive impact on student learning. This is validated by a research made by Hake (1998) who observed that interactive instructional strategy proved to be highly impactful on student performance in the long run. Regarding Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), the performance of the experimental group improved significantly (p = .000), but so did that of the control group albeit less (p = .000). This higher increase in the experimental group correlates with the results presented by Hussain et al. (2011), who summarized that guided inquiry learning significantly increases performance in structured response items, such as in MCQs.