Effect of classroom discussion on academic outcomes of students in genetics at Winneba Senior High School

Abstract

Genetics, the biological Science that deals with how traits are transferred from parents to their offspring plays a tremendous role in the lives of individuals in this 21st century but most Senior High School (SHS) students’ in Ghana have challenges in obtaining conceptual understanding of the topic particularly due to the instructional approaches teachers’ employ in its lesson delivery. The author of this study therefore, investigated the effect of classroom discussion on academic outcomes of students in genetics at Winneba Senior High School. Five hypotheses and assumptions guided the study. Constructivists’ theory of learning was adopted for the study. The positivist paradigm and the quantitative approach underpinned the study paradigm and its approach respectively. Solomon four group design was employed for the study. The study population consisted of all Biology students in Winneba SHS, Central Region with the target population being all SHS 2) whereas the accessible population comprised Science One and Two students. Simple random sampling (lotto technique) was used to select thirty-two (32) students with sixteen (16) students each from Science One (1) and Science Two (2) as the experimental and control group respectively. Standardized Genetics Achievement Test (SGAT) was the instrument designed to gather data from the respondents. Data was analyzed using SPSS by employing inferential statistics (2x2 ANOVA and t-Test) all tested at 0.05 level of significance and descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, minimum, and maximum scores). The study revealed students in the experimental group performed better than their counterparts in the control [F(1,32)=45.68, p<0.05]. Furthermore, it was established by the ANOVA analysis that the pre-SGAT was sensitive [F(1,32)=4.37, p< 0.05] in the control group [df=14, t=1.87, p< 0.05] but not in the experimental group [df=14, t=0.99, p> 0.05]. Finally, it was found that neither sex outperformed each other academically [df=14, t=2.04, p>0.05]. It is therefore recommended that because [F(1,32)=45.68, p<0.05], classroom discussion should be employed predominantly by Biology teachers at Winneba Senior High School when teaching abstract topics such as genetics to enable conceptual understanding of the concepts among students the former and to increase their academic outcomes the latter. Finally, owing to the fact that [F(1,32)=4.37, p<0.05] Biology instructors at Winneba Senior High School Senior High School classrooms should organize tests for their students on regular basis to enable them to learn from their mistakes in previous tests to help them perform better in subsequent ones