BLENDED LEARNING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY IN MKPAT ENIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

This study examined the effect of blended learning approach on the academic performance of secondary school students in Biology in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. A pretest, posttest, quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 100 students was selected from a population of 3280 senior secondary two (S.S.2) Biology students from the sixteen public secondary schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State using simple random sampling technique. The Biology Performance Test on Food Web (BPTFW) was used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face and content validity. A reliability coefficient of .87 was obtained for the instrument using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (K-R20). Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while independent t-test was used to test the hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the mean performance scores of Biology students taught the concept of food web using blended learning and traditional learning strategies. The findings also revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean performance scores of male and female Biology students taught the concept of food web using blended learning approach. It was concluded that blended learning serves as an effective learning approach in improving students’ academic performance in Biology in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. It was recommended among others that teachers should make every effort to use blended learning approach in teaching Biology as this would help to enhance and facilitate academic performance of students in Biology