EXAMINING THE EXTENT OF TEACHERS’ USE OF CONTEXT-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY IN BIOLOGY TEACHING: BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION AND WAY-FORWARD
Abstract
context-based. The efficacy of context-based instructional strategy has been
discovered empirically. However, there is a need to examine the extent of
teachers’ use of this strategy in their Biology teaching so that students cease
to be alienated in science classrooms including Biology, and benefit optimally
thereof for the general good of the public. This study focused on examining the
extent of teachers’ use of context-based instructional strategy in Biology
teaching: Barriers to implementation and way-forward and was studied in
Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. Guided by three research
questions, the study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The
population of the study was all the 56 Biology teachers in the Area. The study
purposively used the 56 Biology teachers as a sample size for the study. The
instrument for data collection was a questionnaire on a four-point scale which
has three clusters whose reliability indices determined using Cronbach’s
Alpha were 0.97, 0.95, and 0.90 respectively; with the overall reliability of
0.75. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Results exposed
that although teachers use context-based instructional strategy in Biology
teaching, their use of the strategy was not holistic. The results also revealed
the barriers to the teachers’ use of context-based instructional strategy and
identified possible solutions. It is recommended among other things that
service teachers should be trained on how to write context-based lesson plans
and on how to contextualize students’ assignments and assessments.
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