EFFECT OF ETHNO-SCIENCE TEACHING ON CREATIVE THINKING LEVEL AMONG SCIENCE STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT-ABILITY IN BENUE STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of ethno-science teaching on creative thinking among science students in Makurdi Township. The study employed a pretest and posttest quasi experimental design. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The study’s population was made up of the 1613 Upper basic II students from the 25 UBE JSS in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State. Two schools were selected from the population using multistage sampling technique. The schools were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups containing male and female students with varied ability that was derived from their previous term examination score. The experimental groups were taught Science concepts using ethno-science teaching while the control groups were taught using discussion method. The groups were further posttested to determine their creative thinking after the treatment. Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) with a reliability coefficient of 0.948 at 0.05 level of significance was used to measure students’ creative thinking. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics (Mean, Standard Deviation and Mean Differences). The hypotheses were tested using two-way ANCOVA at significance level of 0.05. Findings shows that there is significant mean difference in the creative thinking level among different-ability students taught Science using ethno-science teaching and those taught using discussion method (F (1, 33) = 73.035, p (0.000) < 0.05), there is no significant mean difference in the creative thinking level between male and female students of different ability level taught Science using ethno-science teaching (F (2, 13) = 0.655, ρ (0.536) > 0.05). The study concluded based on the findings that Ethno-science instruction is gender friendly and also efficient for the improvement of students’ creative thinking level. The study recommends among others that the facilitators of the learning process should make utilize ethno-science teaching for instruction as to enhance the development of students’ creative thinking level.