GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The study sought to investigate the creative and engagement strategies in teaching the concept of diffusion as a determinant of academic advancement of students in biology. Expost-Facto survey design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in United States of America. The population of the study comprised of all secondary school students of biology. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 150 female and 150 male biology students making a total of 300 respondents that constituted the sample size for the study. The Instrument used in this study for data collection was a questionnaire titled: “Creative and Engagement Teaching Strategies on the Concept Diffusion Questionnaire (CETSCDQ)”. Descriptive and content validation of the instrument was carried out by an expert in test, measurement and evaluation from United States of America to ensure that the instrument has the accuracy, appropriateness and completeness for the study. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.80 and this was high enough to justify the use of the instrument. The researcher subjected the data generated for this study to appropriate statistical technique such as independent t-test analysis. Test for significance was done at 0.05 alpha levels. It was discovered in the study that incorporating creative teaching activities is a positive addition to the curriculum. In doing so, higher education will continue to keep abreast of the needs of graduating students in a complex and rapidly changing professional environment. The study concluded that the roles of teachers in implementing innovative pedagogical practices, particularly those adopting inquiry-based learning have been widely recognized by researchers and educators. It was also concluded that there is significant difference in academic advancement of secondary school students studying biology in United States of America when taught with creative or engagement strategy. Finally, the result proved that there is significant effect of teaching strategies on the academic advancement of male and female secondary school students studying biology in United States of America. One of the recommendations made in the study was that biology teachers should always use appropriate teaching strategies such as creative and engagement teaching strategies in order to have them improve academic advancement of secondary school students in biology.

KEYWORDS: Creative and Engagement Strategies, Teaching, Diffusion, Academic Advancement, Biology Students and United States of America