Abstract:

The study was designed to compare the effects of individual and group student – centred laboratory instruction on students’ conceptual understanding in biology in Jigawa State, Nigeria. One research question was investigated and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 α – level. A completely randomized block design (CRBD) was used for the study. Two teaching methods as categories (individual laboratory student – centred instruction and group laboratory student centred instruction ) as treatments were blocked according to the classes. These were used to collect the data for the analysis. Purposive sampling was used to create homogeneous group for the treatment. One instrument was used for data collection: Conceptual Understanding Test (C U T). The C U T was validated by experts and reliability co-efficient of r = 0.75 for C U T was obtained. The result of the assessment were analyzed using t – test, one – way ANOVA to answer the research question and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 α – level. The findings revealed that individual student – centred approach to laboratory instruction was more effective than group student centred laboratory instruction in conceptual understanding. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Process – Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (P O G I L) model should be adopted for laboratory instruction in biology to improve conceptual understanding in biology

Keywords:

Conceptual understanding, student centred, laboratory instruction, Process-Oriented Guided, Inquiry Learning, (individual and group laboratory instruction.