Gender-Stratified and Interaction Effects of Teaching Method on Senior Secondary Students' Acquisition of Communicating Skills in Biology
1 University of Benin
2 Department of Curriculum & Instructional Technology (Mathematics Unit), Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
* Corresponding author: festus.Idiaghe@uniben.edu
2 Department of Curriculum & Instructional Technology (Mathematics Unit), Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
* Corresponding author: festus.Idiaghe@uniben.edu
Abstract
This study tested whether the ABI > GI > TM effectiveness ordering reported for a pooled sample of 127 senior secondary Biology students (Idiaghe & Odafe, 2026a) replicates for male and female students separately, and whether teaching method and gender interact on posttest communicating-skills scores. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used with students in Egor Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria, taught animal nutrition using Argument-Based Inquiry (ABI), Guided Inquiry (GI), or the Traditional Method (TM). Communicating skills were measured with the Science Written Communicating Skills Acquisition Test (SWCSAT, α = 0.74). Among 59 male students, ANCOVA showed a significant method effect, F(2, 55) = 434.98, p < .001. Among 68 female students, ANOVA showed a significant method effect, F(2, 65) = 169.02, p < .001, with Tukey tests confirming all pairwise differences (ABI > GI > TM, p < .001). A two-way ANOVA on the full sample showed significant main effects of method (η²p = .89) and gender (η²p = .05), but a small, non-significant interaction, F(2, 121) = 2.57, p = .081, η²p = .04. Given unbalanced cells (13-28 per group), this null interaction is read as absence of evidence, not evidence of absence.
Keywords
Argument-Based Inquiry
Guided Inquiry
gender
method-by-gender interaction
two-way ANOVA
Communicating skills
References
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How to Cite
Idiaghe, F. O., & Odafe, E. N. (2026). Gender-Stratified and Interaction Effects of Teaching Method on Senior Secondary Students' Acquisition of Communicating Skills in Biology. Journal of Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, 6(2), 57 – 63.
F. O. Idiaghe, and E. N. Odafe, "Gender-Stratified and Interaction Effects of Teaching Method on Senior Secondary Students' Acquisition of Communicating Skills in Biology," Journal of Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 57 – 63, September 2026.
