INTERACTION EFFECT OF TWO INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND MENTAL ABILITY ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN GENETIC CONCEPTS IN BIOLOGY

Abstract

This study determined the interaction effect of two instructional strategies (Gallery Walks GW and Mind Mapping MM) and mental ability test on students’ achievement in genetics concepts in Biology. The study adopted the pretest-posttest control group, quasi-experimental design. 365 SSII Biology students from nine co-educational schools in three Local Government Areas of Kwara State were randomly assigned to treatment groups. The instruments used were: Genetic Concepts in Biology Achievement Test (r=0.86), Biology Students Mental Ability Test (r=0.87), Biology students Learning Style Scale(r=0.81) and Teachers Instructional guides on Gallery walks and Mind Mapping strategies. Two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were subjected to analysis of covariance.   The 2-ways interaction effect of treatment and mental ability on students’ achievement in genetic concepts in biology was significant (F_{(4, 361)}=3.89;p<0.05,partial η² =0.05).The high mental ability students in MM have the highest post achievement means score( 21.49), followed by medium mental ability students in the MM ( 18.71), medium mental ability students in the GW ( 18.33),low mental ability students in the MM ( 17.82),low mental ability students in the Conventional Strategy ( 16.11),high mental ability students in the GW ( 15.86),low mental ability students in the GW ( 15.36),high mental ability students in the Conventional ( 15.24),while medium mental ability students in the Conventional ( 12.93) have the lowest post-achievement in genetic concepts in Biology achievement mean score. The interaction is disordinal. Based on the findings, Gallery walks and Mind Mapping strategies should be adopted for the improvement of students’ mental ability and achievement in genetics concepts in biology.