EFFECT OF PEER TUTORING ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN KATSINA ZONAL EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE

The study investigated the effect of peer tutoring on students’ academic performance and attitude among senior secondary school Biology students in Katsina Zonal Education Quality Assurance. Three objectives guided the study and these are to: Determine the effect of peer tutoring on students’ academic performance among senior secondary school Biology students in Katsina Zonal Education Quality Assurance, To find out the effect of peer tutoring on students’ academic performance and attitude among senior secondary school Biology students in Katsina Zonal Education Quality Assurance, To find out the effect of peer tutoring on male and female students’ academic performance and attitude among senior secondary school Biology students in Katsina Zonal Education Quality Assurance. Three research questions and hypotheses further guided the study. The study was a pre-test post-test experimental matched group design. The population of the study covers a total number of 851 SSII Biology students. The sample of this study covered a total number of 90 SSS II students from two schools. Two validated instrument with reliability coefficient of 0.8 and 0.7 namely attitude mastery test guided data collection. Three research questions raised were answered using mean and standard deviations while hypotheses were tested using independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance by means of SPSS version 23.1. Two were rejected while one retained at 0.05 level of significance. From the findings, students taught using peer-tutoring developed more positive attitude towards Biology and Mastered better than the students taught using lecture method. The study also concluded that male and female Biology students exposed to peer tutoring did not differ significantly in their attitude and mastery, hence the strategy is gender friendly. On the basis of the study findings, the following recommendations are made: Using peer-tutoring enhances student’s attitude of Biology better than lecture method. The Katsina State Government should emphasize the training of Biology teachers on the use of learner centered and activity based instructional strategies like peer-tutoring technique for instructions through periodic seminars, conferences and workshop. The mastery of Biology students when taught using peer-tutoring is enhanced as revealed by the study therefore Biology teachers in secondary school of Katsina State should adopt the strategy in teaching concepts of distillation. This study revealed that using peer-tutoring is gender friendly among Biology students, therefore, Katsina state school managers, teachers, curriculum planners and quality assurance officers of the Ministry of Education should consider and promote the integration of peer-tutoring and peer tutoring technique into Biology studies.