EFFECT OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING BIOLOGY AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RWANDA

Attitude has been regarded as a motivating feeling for the learning of biology. However, how inquiry-based learning contributes to attitude change towards the learning of biology has not yet been studied in Rwanda. This study intends to determine the effect of inquirybased learning on students’ attitudes toward learning biology. A sample of 228 secondary school students at the upper secondary level in Rwanda was used. A quasi-experimental design with preand post-test was employed. One group was randomly assigned to the control group (N = 109) under the conventional teaching method, while the second group participated as the experimental group (N = 119) under the inquiry-based learning method. Biology attitude questionnaire (BAQ) was tested and a Pearson reliability of .89 coefficient was found, and hence the BAQ was adopted and used for the control and treatment groups before and after learning microbiology. Results asserted a significant effect of intervention in favor of the experimental group. However, a significant effect of the treatment on students’ attitude change in relation to gender was not identified. The study recommends using inquiry-based learning to promote attitude toward learning biology as it raises students’ interest to learning biology and alleviates the difficulty of its concepts. Keywords: biology education, inquirybased learning, students’ attitudes, quasiexperimental design