Students' Practical Experience in Biology First Year Laboratory Manual of Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Though Laboratory work is taken an integral part of the Ethiopian
school biology curriculum starting from grade 7, its nature is mainly
restricted to demonstration of theoretical concepts. Similarly, the freshman
biology laboratory manual discloses at the very onset that the purpose of
practical biology is to ilfustrate the lecture part of the course. Both laboratory
instructors and freshmen students respond consistently that practical
biology should focus on helping students to learn basic practical skifls and
bridge the gap between theory and practice. In the ten laboratory lessons,
about 56 practical works were identified and their content was analyzed
through widely used schemes. Consistent with the purpose of the manual,
analysis of the content revealed that illustrative practica/s dominated the
manual (58.93%) followed by experience practica/s (21 .43%) and exercise
(17.86%) with only 1.78% investigative type. The majority of the practicais
(98.2 1%) emphasize the lowest Level of Inquiry Index, 0 and 1, witb only
1.79% of the practica/s having Level 2 Inquiry Index. Both boys and girls
responded above average to the /ist of statements and showed significant
differences in some of the things they did in the laboratory