Effects of Vee Heuristic teaching approach on secondary school students’ attitudes towards biology in Kenya

Abstract

Biological knowledge plays fundamental role in most aspects of human life. Its application in genetic engineering has made a tremendous contribution towards meeting the demand of food security, medicine and control of a variety of diseases. Despite this significant role, there is a national concern about the attitude of students towards biology by high school students’ especially in physiology and biochemical topics. This study determined the effects of Vee Heuristic Teaching Approach on students’ attitudes towards learning Biology. This study was conducted in public secondary schools in Tharaka Nithi County. Solomon Four – Group Non Equivalent Control Group Design was used. Data was collected from 12 schools randomly sampled from within the county. The sample comprised of 396Form 2 students from four boys, four girls and four co-educational schools. A Biology Attitude Questionnaire was developed and used for data collection. The instruments were pilot-tested in one boy’s, one girl’s and one co-educational school in Embu East Sub-county to ascertain its reliability. The reliability coefficient was estimated using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. A coefficient value of 0.83 was obtained from the research instruments. Hypotheses was tested using ANOVA, and t-test statistics at α = 0.05 level of significance. Means were separated using Least Significant. The study found that Vee Heuristics Teaching Approach VHTA facilitated students’ attitude in biology subject. Since VHTA benefited students irrespective of gender and type of school attended, education authorities should encourage biology teachers, curriculum developers, quality assurance and standards officers and teacher trainers to apply it in the pursuit of teaching endeavors.