Enhancing Junior Secondary School Students’ Acquisition of Science Process Skills through Activity-Based Instruction in Basic Science

The lack of laboratory experiment at the junior secondary level of education has led to poor acquisition of science process skills at the foundation level of science learning. There is thus, the need for an innovative instructional approach that can incorporate such experimental activities in the learning process. The study focused on enhancing junior secondary school students’ science process skills acquisition through activity-based instruction in basic science. Two research questions guided the study and six hypotheses were tested. The quasi-experimental design was used. A sample of 58 Junior Secondary School year two (JSS 2) Basic science students from Aguata Education Zone were involved in the study. The instrument for data collection was Basic Science Process Skill Acquisition Test (BSPSAT) validated by three lecturers in science education and two experienced basic science teachers. The reliability of BSPSAT was established using Kudder-Richardson formula 20 to be 0.79. Data were collected by administering the instruments as pretest and posttest. The data obtained were analyzed using mean to answer research questions, standard deviation and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results showed that there is significant difference in the mean science process skills acquisition scores of students in the experimental and control groups in favour of the experimental group. It was recommended that Curriculum planners should design activity relating to each subject matter contents of Basic science to enable the students improve achievement, acquire and master science process skills while participating in such activities.