| dc.description.abstract | Biology makes students aware of the nature of their daily life, and the care and protection
of the environment. This study looked at the relationship between Science Process Skills
Teaching Approach and learning outcomes in biology in secondary schools in Makueni
County, Kenya. The persistently low level of students’ learning outcomes in biology,
observed for a long time prompted this research. The teaching of the abstract nature of
biological concepts had remained teacher-centered with the learner being a passive
participant with minimum learning resource interaction. The objectives of the study were:
To determine the difference in learners’ self-efficacy in biology among students taught by
Science Process Skills Teaching Approach and those taught using Conventional Teaching
Methods; To establish the difference in learners’ creativity in biology of students taught
using Science Process Skills Teaching Approach and Conventional Teaching Methods; To
establish the difference in the level of critical thinking for students exposed to Science
Process Skills Teaching Approach and Conventional Teaching Methods; To determine the
difference in learners’ academic performance in biology among students exposed to
Science Process Skills Teaching Approach and Conventional Teaching Methods. The
constructivism and experiential learning theories guided the study. It adopted a mixed
research methodology that had both qualitative and quantitative and a Quasi-Experimental
Research Design that involves Solomon's Four Non-Equivalent Control Group Design. The
accessible population was Form Two Biology students within Makueni County. The study
used a stratified random sampling technique to assign the four public co-educational
secondary schools from the randomly sampled four Sub-Counties in which only one school
per the sampled Sub-County was to participate in the study. The research selected a sample
size of 204 Form Two students from the county. SPSTA was the intervention for the two
experimental groups and Conventional Teaching Methods were for the control groups. A
five-point Likert scale questionnaire measured the students’ achievement in self-efficacy
in biology while Biology Assessment Test (BAT) measured the students’ learning
outcomes in creativity, critical thinking, and academic performance. Research experts from
the department of educational communication and technology of Machakos University and
two experienced biology teachers did content and construct validation of the instruments.
The reliability test used the split-half reliability through the KR-20 formula for the BAT,
resulting to a coefficient of α= 0.860, and the five-point Likert scale questionnaire used
Cronbach’s alpha which gave a coefficient of α=0.870. The study used Statistical Package
of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 to analyze the collected data. The expression of the
students’ self-efficacy levels was in terms of percentage of their confidence levels. Data
analysis used descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics calculated mean
scores, and standard deviations while inferential calculated t-test, One-Way ANOVA,
ANCOVA, Least Significant Difference (LSD) Post-Hoc Scheffe Multiple Comparisons,
and Chi-Square Tests to test the hypothesis at α 0.05 level of confidence. The findings of
the study demonstrated that SPSTA enhances learning outcomes in students’ self-efficacy
in biology, creativity, critical thinking, and academic performance. The results of the study
will provide useful information to biology teachers, curriculum developers, Quality
Assurance and standards officers (QASO), and teacher-trainers. | en_US |
