| dc.description.abstract | Biology is a branch of science studied at secondary school that lays the foundation for
careers in medicine, education, agriculture, environment, and biotechnology important
in industrial and technological development. Despite the importance of biology in the
society, its achievement in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education has been low, as
indicated by the low academic scores of the students. This low achievement could be
attributed by factors that could include inappropriate teaching strategy and lack of
mastery of concepts by the students. The purpose of study was to determine the effect
of integration of Computer Assisted Teaching Strategy (CATS) on student academic
achievement and motivation in Biology in public Secondary schools in Baringo
County. The study used Solomon Four-Quasi experimental design. Purposive
sampling was used to select eight extra-County Secondary schools in Baringo.
Stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting sample schools for the
study. The researcher sampled 324 biology students from the stratified selected extra
County secondary schools. In selected schools with more than one stream, simple
random sampling was used to sample form three biology students and assigning them
experimental and control group. The experimental groups were manipulated by
exposing them to Computer Assisted teaching strategy while the control groups were
taught using the traditional teaching strategy. The research instruments that were used
to collect data included; Biology Achievement Test and Biology Motivation
Questionnaire. The instruments were piloted to establish the reliability. Reliability of
the research instruments was determined by using split half method and correlation
coefficient was determined by using Spearman Brown prophecy formula. The
Reliability coefficient for the instruments was 0.704 and 0.709 for BAT and BMQ
respectively with the overall reliability coefficient being 0.706 that was considered
suitable for the study. The data obtained was analyzed descriptively using
frequencies, percentages and inferentially using Analysis of Variance and t-test. The
hypotheses of the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The validity of the
research instruments was determined by incorporating the expert judgment from the
biology teachers and supervisors. The findings of the study showed that integration of
CATS enhances students’ achievement in biology. Additionally the findings indicated
that the strategy positively influence student motivation in biology. Further the
findings shows that there is statistical significance in students’ academic achievement
based on gender. Similarly, statistical significance was reported in student motivation
based on gender when exposed to CATS. From the findings of the study CATS is
effective in improving student academic achievement and enhances motivation in
biology. The study findings will be beneficial to curriculum developers at Kenya
institute of curriculum development in formulation of policy and guidelines for
integration, planning and implementation of CAT in school curriculum in order to
enhance learning and improve student achievement and motivation. Therefore,
biology teachers should incorporate the computer teaching strategy in teaching in
order to improve academic achievement and motivation in biology. | en_US |
