Abstract

The study investigated the effects ofethno-science teachingstrategy on the academic achievement ofstudents inAgricultural Sciences in Secondary schools. Two research questions were posed and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level ofsignificance. The Quasi-experimental design was employed. A sample of132 Agricultural Science students which comprised 63 students randomly assigned to the Control group and 69 students randomly assigned to the Experimental group was used for the study. The 63 Agricultural Science students randomly assigned to the Control (Lecture group) comprised 25 students from schools located in the Urban Areas and 38 studentsfrom schools located in the Rural Areas. The 69 students assigned to the Experimental (Ethnoscience) comprised 24 studentsfrom schools located in the Urban Areas and 45 studentsfrom schools located in the Rural Areas. The sample ofthe study was drawn from 4 secondary schools selectedfrom two Local Government areafrom One Education Zone. A content validated Agricultural Science Achievement Test (ASAT) was administered to both groups ofstudents before and after the experiment. The reliability coefficientfor the instrument was 0.79 which was derived using the Kuder-Richardson (KR-20)formula. Mean andstandard deviations were used to answerresearch questions andANCOVA statistics was used to test the null hypotheses. Findings revealed that ethno-science had a significant effect toward enhancing the academic achievement ofstudents in Agricultural Science andschool location was not a significantfactor on students' academic achievement inAgricultural Science. Based on thefindings, it was recommended that ethno-science should be adopted in teaching and learning process of Agricultural Science in secondary, since itwas effective in enhancing the academic achievement ofstudents. Also school location should not be a discriminating factor when adopting ethno-science teaching strategy. Keywords: Ethno-science, Agricultural Science and Academic achievement