BUZZ SESSION AND ADAPTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AS DETERMINANTS OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The main objective of teaching Integrated Science (IS) in Nigeria Colleges of Education (CoEs) is to produce professional teachers with scientific and technological knowledge and skills. However, pre-service IS teachers were deficient in Lesson Planning Skill (LPS), Teaching Skill (TS) and Pedagogical Knowledge (PK). Previous studies concentrated more on student-related factors than Buzz session and Adaptive learning environment strategies. The present research determined the effects of Buzz Session Strategy (BSS) and Adaptive Learning Environment Strategy (ALES) on pre-service IS teachers’ PK and skills. The moderating effects of self-efficacy and mode of entry were also examined. The Discovery Learning and Social Cognitive theories served as background, while 3x2x2 factorial matrix ofpretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design was adopted. Three CoEs were randomly selected. Intact classes of Part two of pre-service IS teachers were used. The participants in the CoEs were randomly assigned to BSS (120), ALES (126) and control (112) groups. The instruments used were PK Test (0.85), LPS (0.88), TS (0.76) and Self-efficacy (0.81) scales and instructional guides. Analysis of covariance and Scheffe’s Post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance were used to analyse data. The age range was 23.65±1.20 years, and 65.0% were admitted through direct entry. There was a significant main effect of treatment on PK (F(2; 355) =348.98; partial ɳ2 =0.67). The BSS recorded the highest mean score (24.01), followed by ALES (19.34) and the control (7.78) groups. Treatment had a significant main effect on LPS (F(2; 355) = 710.63; partial ɳ2 = 0.81). The BSS group had the highest mean score (67.41), followed by ALES (49.59) and control (31.20) groups. Treatment had a significant main effect on TS (F(2; 355) =204.68; partial ɳ2 =0.54). The BSS group had the highest mean score (65.03), followed by ALES (47.82) and control (35.09) groups. There were significant main effects of self-efficacy on LPS (F(1; 356) = 8.18; partial ɳ2 =0.03) and TS (F(1; 356) =5.44; partial ɳ2 =0.02). The participants with low self-efficacy (50.52) outperformed their counterparts with high self-efficacy (48.82) on LPS and TS. Self-efficacy was not significant on PK. There was a significant two-way interaction effect of treatment and self-efficacy on LPS (F(2; 355) = 3.36; partial ɳ2 =0.02) in favour of low self-efficacy students from BSS group. There was a significant two-way interaction effect of self-efficacy and mode of entry on LPS (F(1; 356) = 9.24; partial ɳ2 = 0.03) in favour of low self-efficacy students with Pre-NCE mode from BSS group. Other two-way interaction effects were not significant. The three-way interaction effects were significant on LPS (F(2; 355) = 5.38; partial ɳ2 = 0.03) and on TS (F(2; 355) = 4.38; partial ɳ2 = 0.03), both in favour of Pre-NCE with low self-efficacy students for BSS group, but not for others. Buzz session and adaptive learning environment strategies improved pedagogical knowledge and skills of pre-service integrated science teachers in southwestern Nigeria, particularly among students with high self-efficacy. These strategies should be adopted to enhance pre-service teachers’ preparation.