ASSESSMENT OF BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ LEVEL OF AWARENESS AND UTILISATION OF INNOVATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NORTH -EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The research was motivated by the need to find the level of awareness and Utilizations of innovative teaching strategies so as to improve the level of utilization of innovative teaching strategies in order to enhance the academic performance students in the subject of Biology, which has progressively declined over time. This paper investigated Biology teachers’ level of awareness and utilization of innovative teaching strategies in secondary schools North-East Nigeria. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of all Biology teachers in public secondary schools in North-East Nigeria. A sample size of 458 Biology teachers were selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire “Biology Teachers Level of Awareness and Utilization of Innovative Teaching Strategies in North-East, Nigeria and it was validated by the three expert 2 were from Department of Science and Environmental Education while the other expert was from Department of Educational Foundation. The reliability of the instrument was determined by conducting a pilot test using 30 Biology teachers and the reliability index of 0.92 was obtained using Cronbach alpha statistics. The data collected for this study was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, mean score and standard deviation in answering the research questions. The result of the analysis revealed that Biology teachers were highly aware of innovative teaching strategies and Utilization was low. Also, the result revealed that gender had no significant influence on level of awareness and utilization of innovative teaching strategies. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that; State ministries of education in conjunction with relevant professional bodies such as Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) should organize workshops, seminars and conferences for Biology teachers to sensitize them on the effectiveness of teaching with innovative teaching strategies.