Effects Of Inquiry Teaching Approach On The Academic Achievement Of Senior Secondary School Students In Agricultural Science

This study was carried out to the effects of inquiry teaching approach on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Agricultural science using selected secondary schools in Ardo Kola local government area of Taraba State as a case study. The study was specifically set to determine the extent teachers adopt the inquiry method during the teaching and learning of Agricultural science in secondary schools; determine the extent inquiry method of teaching influences students academic performance in Agricultural science in secondary schools; determine whether inquiry teaching method influences students comprehension and retention in Agricultural science; and determine whether there is a significant difference in the academic performance of students taught using inquiry method and those taught without inquiry method. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of Agricultural teachers and students of the selected secondary school in Ardo Kola local government area of Taraba State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 200 respondents and 150 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables. While the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square statistical tool. The result of the findings reveals that the inquiry teaching method is not frequently adopt by Agricultural science teachers during the teaching and learning of Agricultural science in secondary schools. The study also revealed that inquiry method of teaching significantly influences students academic performance in Agricultural science in secondary schools. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers should be encouraged to teach Agricultural science students using Inquiry teaching method and discourage the use of lecture teaching method alone as the former technique enhance better academic performances, therefore it is highly recommended that the use of inquiry teaching method should be encouraged in all secondary schools that offer Agricultural science to its students. To mention but a few.