Students conceptual understanding of the human body systems using ICT-based lessons

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study aimed to develop ICT-based lessons, a research material in the form of computer software designed for teaching biology specifically on the identified human body systems. The learning content of the ICT-based lessons were taken from five (5) selected Biology books ideal for Filipino second year high school learners. The study further determined the effect of these ICT-based lessons on the conceptual understanding of students in learning the identified human body systems. It further ascertained whether the use of ICT-based lessons in teaching, when compared with teaching without the integration of ICT-based lessons, has significant influence on the conceptual understanding of the students in Biology. The participants of the study were the 74 purposively selected second year high school students of Western Visayas College of Science and Technology Laboratory School of the school year 2010-2011, who were matched-paired using their first grading grade in Biology. The validated teacher-made test as pretest and post-test was used to measure the conceptual understanding of the students and the use of ICT-based lessons as a teaching tool. Statistical tools used were the means and the standard Deviations for descriptive statistics, and the t-test set at 0.001 alpha level, for inferential statistics. At the beginning of the study, the students were comparatively the same. Pretest-post test performance showed increases in the mean score and significant difference resulted in the t-test for both the experimental and the control groups when their respective means were compared before and after the experimental period. Significant difference also existed between the two groups when the mean gain scores were compared after the treatment in favor of the ICT-based group. On the other hand, the students strongly agreed on the use of ICT-based lessons as a tool. With the result of this study, those interested in the secondary science teaching must recognize the potential nature of Information and Communication technologies when these are incorporated in the teaching and learning process.