Effects of concept and vee mapping strategy on students’ motivation and achievement in Biology in secondary schools in Uasin–Gishu District, Kenya

Abstract

Achievement in Biology in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education has consistently been low for the period between 2000 and 2006. This would imply that the objectives of Biology teaching have not been achieved. In addition, the performance of girls has often been lower as compared to that of boys. Low achievement in examinations would partly be attributed to lack of effective learning, as a result of ineffective teaching approaches. The expository approach has been the main method used for teaching Biology in secondary schools in Kenya. The stakeholders in education attribute failure of students to adequately master Biology content to the use of expository approach that does not assist learners relate skills, formulae, laws and procedures they learn to previous knowledge and experiences. Concept and Vee mapping strategies have had positive results in other parts of the world such as England, Wales and North America and could probably have a positive impact if used in the teaching of Biology in Kenya. In this study, a hybrid of the two strategies referred as Concept and Vee Mapping Strategy (CVMS) was used. The purpose of the study was to measure the CVMS’ effect on students’ achievement and motivation in Biology in mixed provincial secondary schools in Uasin Gishu District, Kenya. A Quasi-experimental research based on the Solomon Four group design was used. All students in secondary school in Uasin Gishu District constituted the target population. The accessible population constituted all the form two students. Four mixed schools were sampled and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. One form two stream from each school was selected and this gave a total sample size of 144 students. The research instruments used to collect data included the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and the Students’ Motivation Questionnaires (SMQ 1 and SMQ 2). The data was analysed using one-way ANOVA and t-test. Hypotheses were tested at alpha is equal to 0.05 level of significance. The results show that students taught using the CVMS had higher motivation and achievement than students taught using the traditional methods. The results also indicated that students’ gender did affect achievement in Biology where girls performed better than boys. It is therefore concluded that CVMS is an effective approach in improving students’ performance in Biology in secondary schools as well as reducing the gender disparity in achievement. This study recommends CVMS teaching method for adoption in Kenyan secondary schools.