Gender and Communication Skills Acquisition of Students Exposed to Argument-Based Inquiry Instructional Approach

Effective communication has potentials of reducing uncertainty. Unfortunately, studies have shown that communication skills are poorly acquired by science students around the world. Literature from the developed world report that argument-driven inquiry enhances communication skills of students. Such studies are rare in developing nations such as Nigeria. This study examines the effects of Argument-based Inquiry(ABI) on students' acquisition of communicating skills in Nigeria. Quasi-experiment of non-equivalent control group design was used for the study involving138participants(n = 58 males and n = 80 females) purposively drawn from four coeducation schools. An intact class was randomly drawn from each school and randomly assigned to experimental (ABI) and control-Conventional Inquiry(CI) groups. Two instruments, Science Communicating Skills Development Test (SCSDT) and Verbal Communicating Skills Assessment Rubrics (VCSAR) were used for data collection. The data collected were analysed using SPSS version 23 involving descriptive and inferential statistics in answering research questions and testing hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance Findings showed that ABI enhanced students written communicating skills better than CI.T here was significant verbal communicating skills acquisition in favour of ABI. The influence of gender on written and verbal communication was not significant. It was concluded that since ABI enhanced verbal communicating skills better than CI, and are in demand skills poorly possessed by science students and highly needed by employers, teachers should practice and use ABI for Science instructional delivery.