Influence of Gender and Cognitive Styles on Students’ Achievement in Biology

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of gender and cognitive styles on students' achievement in biology in senior secondary schools in Anambra State. One research question and one null hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. A causal comparative research design and a population of 12,000 (SSII) biology students in sixty-four government - owned secondary schools in Awka Education zone. The sample of the study consisted of 265 SSII biology students (141 males and 124 girls) drawn from four government owned schools comprising of two (2) boys and two (2) girls' school in Awka education zone. The sample was drawn using disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Two instruments were employed for data collection namely: Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) and Biology Achievement Test (BAT). GEFT was used to access the cognitive styles of students as either field -dependent or field independent. It is a standardized instrument with a reliability of 0.89 on a test re-test method. BA T content validity was ensured by a test blueprint while face validity was ensured by two biology educators and one expert in measurement and Evaluation from  the science Education Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The reliability coefficient of BAT was established using Cronbach Alpha which gave 0.86. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research question while one-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis. Result showed among others: that gender and cognitive styles has no significant, influence on achievement scores of students in biology. Recommendations and conclusion were highlighted.

Keywords: Gender, Cognitive styles, Achievement, Biology