Inquiry-Based Laboratory Activities: Effect on Students' Inquiry Skills, Conceptual Understanding and Attitude Toward Genetics

The study developed and determined the effects of the inquiry-based laboratory activities on the inquiry skills, conceptual understanding and attitude towards Genetics of undergraduate Biology and Biology major Education students. The quasi-experimental design for quantitative methodology and qualitative data analysis were used to assess the (1) difference in the inquiry skills and conceptual understanding among and between students exposed to inquiry-based laboratory activities and those who are not; (2) change in the attitudes of the students toward Genetics in inquiry-based laboratory activities; (3) correlation among students' inquiry skills, conceptual understanding, and attitude toward Genetics; and (4) impact of inquiry-based laboratory activities in Genetics to students who use it. The students enrolled in Genetics class in a state university in the Visayas for the 2nd Semester Academic Year 2014-2015 served as subjects of this study. The students were randomly assigned to two groups - the control and the experimental groups. The control group consisted of one section of Bachelor of Science in Biology (Premed and Biotechnology Track) students taught using the traditional cookbook method in Genetics while the experimental groups consisted of two separate sections of Bachelor of Science in Biology (Microbiology Track) and Bachelor in Secondary Education (major in Biology) students utilized the researcher-made inquiry-based laboratory activities. This was further triangulated through students' laboratory reports, inquiry skills, conceptual understanding results, attitude questionnaire responses and observation checklists. The quantitative data on conceptual understanding, inquiry skills and attitude toward Genetics were assessed in a pretest-posttest implementation of the strategy used. In the laboratory period, the control group used the conventional laboratory method, the "cook book" method while the inquiry-based laboratory method was employed in the experimental group. Statistical analyses of the study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that the pretest mean scores of the control (Inquiry Skills, M=12.20; Conceptual Understanding, M=12.42; Conceptual Understanding, M=10.78, Genetics Attitude, M=2.39) were comparable and showed no significant difference (Inquiry Skills, p=0.807; Conceptual Understanding, p=0.231; Genetics Attitude, p=0.921) prior to the intervention. Independent samples t-test on inquiry skills and conceptual understanding showed that the experimental group had a significantly higher (inquiry skills, p = 0.043 and conceptual understanding, p = 0.002) posttest mean scores than the control group after using the inquiry-based laboratory activities in Genetics, respectively. The experimental group inquiry skills (M=24.67) is two percent higher than the control group (M=22.76) suggesting that the inquiry learning strategy helped students to construct and conceptualize the knowledge of Genetics laboratory from basic principles to applications. Furthermore, the experimental group conceptual understanding (M=22.730 which is four percent higher than the control group (M=18.80) revealed that the approach has effectively improved the conceptual understanding of the students. With better understanding of the concepts, students would be able to perform better in their courses. The posttest mean scores in the attitude toward Genetics of the experimental group (M=2.430) and the control group (M=2.433) were almost equal after the intervention. However, the independent samples t-test result showed no significant change on the attitude mean scores toward Genetics of the control (p=0.278) and experimental (p=0.104) groups exposed to inquiry-based laboratory activities and those who are not, respectively. Attitude toward Genetics did not significantly vary in the two groups probably because they were all science majors and initially they have a good attitude toward Genetics. Hence, inquiry-based learning (IBL) did not cause a significant change in the students' Genetics attitudes. The correlation test indicate that there is a significant relationship between students' conceptual understanding and inquiry skills in the control (r=0.451, p=0.002) and experimental (r=0.492, p=0.001) groups while attitude did not show any significant relationship with them after the intervention. The non-significant negative correlation between conceptual understanding and attitude of students in the experimental group could be attributed to factors that have contributed to the high level of resistance to inquiry in this study. The impacts of inquiry-based laboratory activities in Genetics were better retention of information, expertise in inquiry skills, enhanced critical thinking skills, facilitated problem solving, drawing of conclusion and prediction of possible outcomes, and lesson mastery