Abstract

This paper examined the influence of two constructivist learning approaches on the cognitive achievement of Junior Secondary School students in Basic Science in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State. The population comprises of 17 secondary schools in Afijio Local Government Area. Three schools were randomly selected and 120 JSS II students were used for the study using quasi-experimental designed. The schools were chosen on the premises that they offer Basic Science, their laboratories are adequately equipped with modern teaching and learning materials. Two instruments (i) Objective Tests on Basic Science (OTBS) and (ii) An Instructional Guide/Packages were used to generate the raw data. OTBS was a 30 items objectives test on Basic Science constructed by the researcher and validated by two experts in the department of Integrated Science, Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate, Oyo State. The result obtained showed the significance of the two experimental groups on students achievement in Basic Science when compared to the control group. Finding also revealed that gender had a significant influence on students’ achievement in Basic Science. It was recommended that the need to use constructivist learning approaches and to integrate constructivist strategies in the curriculum for the teaching of Basic science in junior secondary schools is necessary.

Keywords: Achievement, Basic Science, Cognitive learning, Constructivist