Impacts of group-investigation and heuristic-discovery strategies on cellular respiration achievement in Nigerian secondary schools

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of Group-Investigation Strategy (GIS) and Heuristic-Discovery Strategy (HDS) compared to the traditional Lecture Method (LM) in improving students’ achievement in cellular respiration. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed, involving 165 SSII students drawn from 4,525 in Katsina State, Nigeria. The Cellular Respiration Achievement Test (CRAT) with a reliability coefficient of r = 0.816 was used. Results analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and ANCOVA (p ≤ 0.05) revealed that both GIS and HDS significantly enhanced achievement compared to LM, with GIS showing the highest effectiveness. Gender had no significant effect on achievement across strategies. The study concludes that GIS and HDS are superior to the lecture method in teaching complex biology topics and recommends their integration into classroom practice and teacher professional development programs.