Effect of Animation Instructional Strategy on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement and Retention in Biology

This study investigated the Effect of Animation Instructional Strategy (AIS) on Senior Secondary Two (SS II) Students’ Achievement and Retention in Biology in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Six research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. A quasi-experiment of the pre-test, post-test non-equivalence control group research design was adopted for the study. Senior secondary two (SS 2) students from all the 85 public secondary schools in Abakaliki Education Zone numbering 11,758 formed the population of this study. The sample of the study comprised 468 students of the intact classes of 4 randomly sampled schools from the four local government areas in the zone. Biology Achievement Test (BAT) with reliability coefficients of 0.79 (for internal consistency) and 0.89 (for stability) were used as instruments for data collection of this study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 95% confidence level. The results revealed that: AIS significantly enhanced the mean achievement and retention scores of the students in biology more than the conventional chalk and talk method. Equally, the result further revealed that there is no significant difference between the mean achievement and retention scores of male and female students taught biology using AIS. In addition, the interaction between the methods and gender on the students mean achievement and retention scores in biology was not statistically significant. The study concluded that AIS was superior to the conventional chalk and talk method in enhancing students’ academic achievement and retention in biology. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that biology teachers should prioritize the use of AIS since it has been proven to have a significant positive effect on the interest and academic achievement of students in biology.