Abstract:
Evident reports on inconsistencies of findings of studies on influence of gender and instructional methods on the academic achievement of students in chemistry in Nigeria necessitate this meta-analytic study. The study is aimed at integrating results of previous empirical studies on instructional methods and gender on students’ academic achievement in order to come up with a conclusive results. Seven research questions and seven hypotheses guided the study in which meta-analytic research design was used. The population of the study consisted of all previous research reports on gender and instructional methods on students’ achievement in chemistry. One hundred and thirty eight studies on effect of instructional methods and influence of gender on chemistry achievement produced in Nigeria between 1990 -2012, drawn using purposive sampling technique, were used for the study. Percentages and statistical transformations were used to analyse the data for the research questions, while Winer combined test was used to test the seven hypotheses. The findings of the result showed among other things that (i) results of the previous studies on the effect of instructional methods on achievement in chemistry are positively significant at 0.05 level. (ii) overall effect of instructional methods on students’ academic achievement in chemistry is significant at 0.05 level. (iii) overall influence of gender on the academic achievement of students is moderate and significant at 0.05 level. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that student teachers as well as the serving teachers should be trained in current innovative teaching methods through workshops, seminars, conferences and in-service programmes. Teachers are also urged to use varieties of methods and activities that are not gender biased in the act of teaching and learning chemistry.
