Developing a Positive Attitude towards the Learning of Biology in Secondary Schools through Peer Led Team Learning Strategy

Learning strategies have a considerable effect when explaining attitude towards science. This study investigated the effects of peer tutoring and peer led team learning strategies on students’ attitude towards Biology. It was guided by two research questions and three hypotheses. The study adopted quasi-experimental design; it was specifically a non-equivalent control group design. The population of the study comprised all senior secondary I students in all the government senior secondary schools in Port-Harcourt metropolis, made up of two local government areas (Obio/Akpor and Port-Harcourt) in Rivers state. Using stratified random sampling and purposive sampling techniques, a multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select four intact classes from four schools in the study area. Out of these schools, two schools were randomly (by balloting) assigned to peer tutoring learning strategy while the remaining two were assigned to peer led team learning strategy. A total of 182 SSI students form the sample size. Biology Attitudinal Scale (BAS) was used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to provide answers for the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study among others revealed that peer led team learning strategy has significant effect on students’ attitude towards Biology. Although male and female students show difference in mean attitudinal scores in favour of the females, further analysis show that gender has no significant influence on attitude of students towards Biology. Finally, the result of the study also showed that the interaction effect of learning strategy and gender was statistically insignificant for students’ attitude towards Biology. Based on these findings, the researcher among others recommended that Biology students should be encouraged to adopt peer led team learning strategy in learning Biology.