New Perspectives in Science Education

Edition 13

Accepted Abstracts

Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities: Effects on Inquiry Skills and Attitude towards Genetics

Nenita S. Delos Santos, University of the Philippines-Open University (Philippines)

Abstract

The study developed and determined the effects of the inquiry-based laboratory activities on the inquiry skills and attitude toward Genetics of undergraduate Biology and Biology major Education students. The quasi-experimental design for quantitative methodology and qualitative data analysis were used. The students enrolled in Genetics class in a state university in the Visayas for the 2nd Semester Academic Year 2014-2015 served as subjects of this study.   The students were randomly assigned to two groups - the control and the experimental groups. The control group were taught using the traditional cookbook method in Genetics while the experimental groups utilized the researcher-made inquiry-based laboratory activities in Genetics. Qualitative analysis was done using focus group interview to obtain an in-depth analysis of the perceptions on the strategy and implementation of inquiry-based laboratory activities. The quantitative data on inquiry skills and attitude toward Genetics were assessed in a pretest-posttest implementation of the strategy used. Statistical analyses of the study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results showed that the pretest mean scores of the control (Inquiry Skills, M=12.20;; Genetics Attitude, M=2.39) group and experimental group (Inquiry Skills, M=12.42; Genetics Attitude, M=2.39) were comparable and showed no significant difference (Inquiry Skills, p=0.807; Genetics Attitude, p= 0.921) prior to the intervention. Independent samples t-test on inquiry skills showed that the experimental group had a significantly higher (inquiry skills, p = 0.043) posttest mean scores than the control group after using the inquiry-based laboratory activities in Genetics, respectively.  The experimental group inquiry skills (M=24.67) is two percent higher than the control group (M=22.76) suggesting that the inquiry learning strategy helped students to construct and conceptualize the knowledge on Genetics laboratory from basic principles to applications. The posttest mean scores in the attitude toward Genetics of the experimental group (M=2.430) and the control group (M=2.433) were almost equal after the intervention. However, the independent samples t-test result showed no significant change on the attitude mean scores toward Genetics of the control (p=0.278) and experimental (p=0.104) groups exposed to inquiry-based laboratory activities and those who are not, respectively. 

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