The influence of gender on student’s preference to learner centered techniques in a-level biology in Matugga sub-county, Wakiso district

Abstract

The study was conducted in eight schools in Matugga sub-county where by 5 schools were purely government schools and the other 3 were private schools. The study focused on influence of gender on learner centered teaching techniques used in biology. The findings of the study showed that among these techniques i.e. group discussion, experimentation method and presentation, girl’s preference to presentation technique was significantly higher than that of boys. The preferences of these techniques were accessed using questionnaires where by students of A-level had to give in their attitude towards a given question. Out of the 89 students interviewed, 51.7% were boys and 48.3% were girls. Findings showed experimentation method was the most preferred technique by both boys (91.6%) and girls (94.1). presentation method among all techniques of teaching biology was not highly preferred by students interviewed, boys (80.4%) and girls (86.6%). The second preferred method was group discussion with a percentage preference of boys (81.9%) and girls (86.1%). However the overall assessment showed that the entire three learner centered techniques were highly preferred by both girls and boys.