INTERACTIVE INVENTION AND CROSSWORD PUZZLE-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES, AND PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS LEARNING OUTCOMES IN CELL BIOLOGY IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Cell Biology, one of the courses offered at Colleges of Education (CoEs) in Nigeria, is basic for the understanding of all biological concepts. However, reports have shown that pre-service teachers’ achievement and interest were poor and inconsistent. Previous studies largely evaluated the implementation and effectiveness of pre-service teachers’ Biology curriculum with little attention paid to intervention using Interactive Invention Instructional Strategy (IIIS) and Crossword Puzzle-based Instructional Strategy (CPIS). Therefore, this study was designed to determine the effects of IIIS and CPIS on pre-service teachers’ learning outcomes (achievement and interest) in Cell Biology in southwestern Nigeria. The study also examined the moderating effects of problem-solving ability and cognitive style. Jerome Brunner’s Constructivist Theory of Learning and Ashmore, Frazer and Casey’s Problem-Solving Model were adopted as the framework, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with a 3×2×2 factorial matrix was adopted. Three Federal Colleges of Education were selected purposively out of the existing CoEs in southwestern Nigeria and an intact class of Nigeria Certificate in Education 1 Biology students were enlisted. The participating CoEs were randomly assigned to IIIS (146), CPIS (134) and control (124) groups. The instruments used were Pre-service Teachers Cell Biology Achievement Test (r = 0.79), Pre-service Teachers Cell Biology Interest Questionnaire (r = 0.82), Pre-service Teachers Cell Biology Problem-solving Ability Scale (r = 0.79), Pre-service Teachers Cell Biology Cognitive Style Test (r = 0.86) and instructional guides. The treatment lasted 14 weeks. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. The age of the pre-service teachers was 17.00±2.30 years, and 75.0% were female. There was a significant main effect of treatment on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(2;403) = 37.78, partial η2 = 0.16). The participants in IIIS had the highest postachievement mean score (17.75), as against those in CPIS (17.17) and the control (14.12) groups. There was a significant main effect of treatment on pre-service teachers’ interest (F(2;403) = 55.00, partial η2 = 0.22). The participants in IIIS had the highest post-interest mean score (82.25), as against those in CPIS (80.90) and the control (73.52) groups. The main effects of problem-solving ability and cognitive style were not significant. The two-way interaction effects were not significant. There was a significant interaction effect of treatment, problem-solving ability and cognitive style on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(2;403) = 40.00, partial η2 = 0.02) in favour of high problem-solving ability from IIIS group with analytical cognitive style. The threeway interaction effect on pre-service teachers’ interest was not significant. Interactive invention and crossword puzzle-based instructional strategies enhanced pre-service teachers’ Cell Biology learning outcomes in southwestern Nigeria, regardless of their problem-solving ability and cognitive style. These strategies should be adopted to teach pre-service Biology teachers in other to cater for their deficiency in Cell Biology.