Comparative Effectiveness of Virtual Field Trip Strategy and Traditional Fieldtrip on Academic Performance and Motivation of Students in Conservation Concepts of Biology in Northwest, Nigeria

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness of virtual and traditional field trip strategies on academic performance and motivation of students in conservation concepts of biology in North-West Nigeria. The study developed 2 research objectives one of which is to: compare the effectiveness of virtual and traditional field trip strategies on academic performance of students in conservation concept. The study was guided by 2 research questions and 2 null hypotheses. A Quasi experimental research using test-retest method of pretest and posttest was adopted for the study. A sample of 120 N.C.E II biology students comprising of 81 males and 39 females were randomly selected from the population of 357 students of which 213 are males and 114 are females. The study developed 2 instruments namely: Conservation Concepts Performance Test (CCPT) and Conservation Concepts Motivation Questionnaire (CCMQ) which are validated and found reliable with r=0.65. At the end of the treatment data was collected and analyzed using Means and standard deviations to answer the research question while t-test and Mann- Whitney Statistics were used to answer the null hypotheses. The results obtained showed that: significant differences exist between the performance of students taught using virtual field trip strategy and those exposed to traditional field trip strategy. From the findings recommendations were made one of which is: the Ministry of Education/ colleges should provide a biology Virtual environment to serve each school in the region as technology is seen to help improve the performance and raise the level of motivation in biology concepts, moreover it will help to overcome problems faced by teachers from a lack of real field trips which leads to ignorance of some abstract concepts such as conservation concepts biology.