Enhancing Students’ Academic Performance in Basic Science and Mathematics through Inquiry Pedagogy in Calabar Education Zone

This research investigated the effect of inquiry pedagogy on academic performance of students in Basic Science and Mathematics in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Improving on students’ academic performance requires that students should be provided with learning strategies that could enable them create knowledge themselves to enhance retention. This article explains how inquiry method of teaching could be used to communicate some basic concepts in Basic Science and Mathematics in the lesson to improve students’ academic performance. The sample of the study consisted of one hundred and sixty (160) Junior Secondary School Three (JSS3) students in Calabar Education Zone. The instrument: Basic Science and Mathematics Achievement Test (BSMAT) developed by the researchers were used to gather data for analysis. One research question and one null hypothesis guided the study; a non-equivalent, pre-test, post-test quasi experimental design was employed. Two intact classes were used (though not all were used as sample) from four different schools purposively sampled, two as experimental and the other two, control group. The experimental group received treatment with the use of inquiry method, while the control group was taught conventionally. Independent t-test statistical analysis was used in the study. The result indicated that, there was significant difference in the mean achievement scores between the control and experimental groups. This finding shows that the students taught Basic Science and Mathematics using inquiry method had higher mean achievement scores than their counterparts in the control groups. This implies that knowledge can easily be gained if the students are actively involved in the lesson and given opportunity to investigate a given problem. The researchers recommended among others that Government and other Education Stakeholders should encourage teachers to employ inquiry method in their teaching and learning processes in secondary schools.