Effect of Inductive and Deductive Teaching Methods on Students’ Performance in Basic Science Among Junior Secondary Schools Students: A Gender Study

Abstract

The study investigates the impacts of Inductive Teaching Method (ITM) and Deductive Teaching Method (DTM) on the performance of Junior Secondary School three (JSS III) students in Basic science. The study applied a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Six (6) junior secondary schools three (JSS III) were purposively chosen inside Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria. A total of six hundred and twenty (620) participants comprising of three hundred and fifty-five (355) male students and two hundred and sixty-five (265) were involved in the study. The intact class was used in each of the selected schools, and the instruments for data collection was the Basic Science Performance Test (BSPT). The arithmetic means standard variation and One-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were applied using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 to test two hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The preliminary test result revealed that the data collected met the normality assumption, few outliers and homogeneity of variance. The main result showed that the most effective and preferred teaching method is the inductive teaching method. There was a significant difference in the male student's mean performance [F (2,351)=25.911, p=0.000] between the three groups. The study also discovered no significant difference in the female student's mean performance [F (2,260)=0.154, p=0.857] between the three groups while adjusting for the pretest score. Given the discoveries, it is suggested that the utilization of inductive teaching method should be encouraged and the necessary facilities and equipment needed for proper implementation should be provided by the school authorities.