Relationship between Students’ Achievement in Essay and Practical Tests on Biology in Nsukka Education Zone

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between students’ achievement in practical and essaytests on biology. Two research questions were formulated- (i) what is the difference in the mean score of students in practical and essay tests in mock biology examinations? (ii) what is the measure of relationship (correlation coefficient) of students’ achievement in practical and essay aspects of biology tests? The research was conducted among public secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State with a sampled population of 560 biology students (321 males and 239 females) from randomly sampled schools from the three local government areas in the zone.The Correlation survey research design was adopted for this study and the instrument of data collection were the results of the 2018 students’ mock practical and theoretical tests on biology from the sampled schools.The data collected were analysed using Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for research question 1, while the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient analysis was used for research question 2. The findings of the study revealed that a weak positive association existed between the students’ achievementin practical and essay biology tests. So, the achievement in one aspect does not in any way influence the achievement in the other. The study thus recommends that: (1) teachers should have good mastery and evaluation techniques of all components of biology so that students would approach them with equal ability; (2) parents should encourage the students to develop interest and ability in the different components of biology; and (3) government should provide and equip biology laboratories to ensure students’ utilization of same.