FRAME QUADRAT AND BELT TRANSECT TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the use of frame quadrat and belt transect techniques on students’ academic achievement in Biology in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of the study, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A non-randomized pretest posttest control group experimental design with two treatment groups for two intact classes that was adopted. The population of the study consisted of all Senior Secondary Two (SS2) Biology students in the eleven public secondary school in Abak Local Government Area. The sample for the study was one hundred and fifty (150) Senior Secondary Two (SS2) Biology students drawn from the three randomly selected secondary schools in the study area. The instrument used for the study was the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) comprising of twentyfive (25) multiple-choice items designed by the researcher. The instrument was duly validated and subjected to reliability analysis using Kuder Richardson 20 (K-R20). The result showed reliability coefficient of 0.89 and was deemed appropriate for the main study. Mean and standard deviation were used in answering the research questions while analysis of covariance was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. From the results of the analyses carried out, the findings showed that there was a significant difference in students’ academic achievement when taught the concept of specie abundance in population ecology based on frame quadrat and belt transect as students in the experimental groups achieved better than their control group counterparts in Biology. Students in the experimental groups (frame quadrat and belt transect) performed better than student in the control group in the concept of specie abundance. But within the experimental groups, those taught with frame quadrat achieved better than those taught with belt transect; there is significant difference in achievement of students with different cognitive styles (systematic style, intuitive style, integrated style, undifferentiated style and split style) when taught species abundance (in population ecology) in Biology using the frame quadrat and belt transect method with those taught using the conventional method. The interaction effect between cognitive styles and treatments given, affect significantly the academic achievement of the students in the concept of specie abundance in Biology. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that strengthening the use of frame quadrat and belt transect learning techniques through in-service courses could help science teachers to adopt proper use of appropriate learning techniques.