Abstract:
The study sought to improve the attitudes and achievement of Home Economics students
in Biology through cooperative teaching and learning approach. The study used action
research design. A sample of 66 S H S Home Economics Students was selected from
Business Senior High School for the study. Data for the study were collected using
questionnaire and tests. The questionnaire sought response on Home Economics students‟
attitude towards Biology. Two tests thus; pre and post-tests were administered before and
after intervention respectively to determine the academic achievement of the students in
Biology. Descriptive statistics was used to organise the data from the questionnaire into
means and standard deviations whiles percentages were also expressed from the
responses. A paired t-test statistic was used to establish the significance of the
Cooperative approach on students‟ academic achievement. Results from the questionnaire
before the intervention demonstrated that Home Economics students indicated poor
attitudes towards biology since a significant number of the students‟ responses revealed
mean values indicating attitudes and the pre-test also revealed poor performance of the
students. The post-intervention findings indicated positive attitudes and a significantly
improved performance of the students. It is recommended among other things that
cooperative teaching and learning should be employed in teaching Biology at SHSs to
help instil positive attitudes in students by addressing the various factors responsible for
poor attitudes towards the subject. Implementation of Cooperative approach should help
teachers identify the weakness of students and address them to improve their academic
achievement.
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of science
Education, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of
Education, Winneba in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
award of Master of Philosophy (Science Education) degree.
OCTOBER, 2014