Article Details

This study determined the effect of outdoor and indoor learning activities on students’ achievement in basic science and technology among junior secondary school students in Keffi Education Zone. Eight research questions guided this study, and eight hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental research design involving a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group was adopted. The population of the study comprised 2,879 JSS II students. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 93 students as the sample for the study. Ecosystem Achievement Test (EAT was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three (3) experts, yielding a validation index of 0.82. The instrument was trial-tested, and a reliability coefficient of 0.75 was obtained using the Kuder-Richardson 21 (KR-21) formula. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the null hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught ecosystem concepts using outdoor learning activities and those taught using conventional methods. Furthermore, there was no interaction effect of method and gender on students’ achievement in ecosystem concepts. Based on these findings, the study recommends, among others, that schools and educational policymakers should incorporate outdoor learning activities as a regular part of the science curriculum, particularly for teaching complex and abstract concepts. Teachers should be trained through workshops, seminars, and professional development programs on how to effectively utilize outdoor learning strategies.