A Comparative Study of the Effect of Gamification and Advance Organizers on Students’ Performance in Basic Science in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Enhancement of students’ performance lies at the heart of educational endeavors. This is evident in the continuous search for more effective strategies to boost classroom practices and students’ learning outcomes. This quasi experimental study compares the efficacy of gamification and advance organizers in enhancing students’ performance in Basic science. The study purposively selected sixty (60) basic science students from two co-educational schools. Four null hypotheses, tested at 0.05 level of significance, guided the study. The instruments used for the study were Basic Science Achievement Test (r=0.83) and Teachers’ Instructional Guides on Gamification and Advance Organizer strategy. Data were analyzed using independent t-test. The result t(58)=16.17, p less than 0.05] of this study showed that gamification was more effective than advance organizer in enhancing students’ performances in basic science. The finding [t (28) =3.22, p>0.05] also reveals that male and female students’ performance in basic science does not differ after exposure to gamification and to advance organizers [t (28) =3.18, p>0.05]. This study concluded that gamification is more effective than advance organizer in promoting students’ performance in basic science and both strategies are not gender bias or gender specific as they are both applicable to male and female students. It recommends that in-service training and workshop should be organized by stakeholders in the educational sector to train basic science teachers on the techniques of gamification so it can be well adopted for classroom teaching. Also, co-educational schools can employ gamification as a teaching strategy since it provides equal opportunities to male and female students.