Effect of Biology Practicals on Academic Achievement in Biology of Senior Secondary School Students in Mubi North Local Government Area, Adamawa State

This study investigated the effect of biology practicals on academic achievement of senior secondary biology students in Mubi North Local Government Area, Adamawa State. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study was 2915 senior secondary schools Biology students in Mubi North Local Government Area. A sample for the study was 250 drawn from Senior Secondary two (SS II) students, which were randomly selected through purposive sampling technique. The design was quasi experimental research which involve pre-test, post-test control groups. The instrument used for data collection was 22 objective and 8 Essay Biology Achievement Test (BAT) adopted from WAEC past question papers. The instruments were subjected to face and content validity by two experts. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while t-test was used for hypotheses testing at 0.05 level of significance using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The findings of hypothesis one show that there is significant difference between the performance of students’ in pre-test and post-test. The result of hypothesis two also shows that there is significant difference between the performance of students taught using practical method of teaching and those taught using conventional method of teaching while on the other hand, hypothesis three result show that there is significant differences between the performance of students in urban and rural areas. It was recommended among others that, there is also a need for an sufficient facilities such as adequate laboratory and with equipped with practical equipment for the student, which will enable biology student to have more knowledge on the subject, this poor academic performance of the students was attributed to many factors as highlighted in chapter one such as student attitude, test anxiety, study habit among other this could be as result of poor teaching method. Therefore, a biology teacher should have a good teaching method for smooth impacting of ideas to his/her students.