EFFECT OF PICTORIAL ADVANCED ORGANIZERS ON STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BIOLOGY IN JALINGO EDUCATION ZONE TARABA STATE

Abstract

This study examined the effect of Pictorial Advanced Organizers on students' academic performance in Biology within the Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State. A quasi-experimental design was employed to compare the performance of students taught using Pictorial Advanced Organizers and those taught using the Conventional Instructional Method. The targeted population for this study comprised of 5,361 Secondary school students of Biology (SSII), 2,617 male and 2,774 respectively.
The sample size was 203 SSII students. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used in determining the schools. Two of the schools were designated as experimental group while the other as control group and intact was used to determine the sample size. The instrument used was Advanced Organizers Performance Test (AOPT) adopted by the researcher. The AOPT consists of
40 multiple choice Biology test items with four options (A-D) from which the students were to select
the correct answer. A reliability index of 0.85 was obtained using Kuder Richardson’s (KR20) formula.
The data collected in this study was analyzed using descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard
Deviation) to summarize and describe the data, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed
to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. The results indicate that students exposed to
Pictorial Advanced Organizers demonstrated a higher mean gain score (13.12) compared to those
taught with the Conventional Instructional Method (6.39). Furthermore, gender-based analysis
revealed that both male and female students benefited from the use of Pictorial Advanced
Organizers, with mean gain scores of 13.98 and 11.98, respectively. In contrast, the mean gain
scores for males and females in the Conventional Instructional Method group were 6.54 and 6.24,
respectively. Statistical analysis using ANCOVA showed a significant difference between the two
instructional methods, F(1, 200) = 274.876, p < 0.05, with an effect size (η² = .579), indicating
that 57.9% of the variance in students' performance was attributable to the instructional method.
These findings suggest that Pictorial Advanced Organizers significantly enhance students' academic
performance in Biology compared to conventional methods. The study recommends integrating
Pictorial Advanced Organizers into Biology instruction to improve students' comprehension and
learning outcomes.