The Effect Of Interspersed Questions In Textual Readings On Understanding And Retention Of Biology Concepts By Form 3 Pupils In Four Rural Secondary Schools In Zimbabwe

This study determined the effect of presence of questions in a biology text on recall and retention of concepts by Form 3 pupils. It also sought to determine whether the type of inserted questions influenced this retention. A 1500 word biology text passage was prepared and treated in three different ways before exposure to the target students. In one, the passage was reproduced from the text book (as it was without any inserted questions). In the second, ten factual questions were inserted at different points within the text. In the last, ten application questions were placed at the same points as the factual questions. One hundred and sixty eight (168) Form 3 pupils were sampled from 4 rural secondary schools (42 per school) These were divided into 3 groups (56 each, 14 per school) Each group was made to study a differently treated passage for 40 minutes. At the end of the study period, a common wenty question (multiple choice) test on the passage was administered to all groups to test retention of concepts. Results showed that studying texts in which there are interspersed questions significantly improved pupils'retention of concepts. Higher order questions significantly contributed more to retention than lower order questions. With very minor exceptions, there was no significant difference in the performance of pupils per given variable when inter-school group comparisons were made.

Article in the Zimbabwe Bulletin of Teacher Education