IJIET 2025 Vol.15(12): 2789-2795
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2025.15.12.2473
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2025.15.12.2473
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Learn-before-Lecture Approach on Biodiversity Education for Pre-University Students
Azlinah Matawali, Johannah Jamalul Kiram, Megawati Mohd Yunus, Huzaikha Awang,
Sitty Nur Syafa Bakri, Fadzilah Awang-Kanak, Nur Ramziahrazanah Jumat, and
Siti Nazirah Butai*
Preparatory Centre for Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Email: azlinah@ums.edu.my (A.M.); johannah612@ums.edu.my (J.J.K.); megawati@ums.edu.my (M.M.Y.); huzaikha.ikha@ums.edu.my (H.A.); syafa@ums.edu.my (S.N.S.B.); akfadzil@ums.edu.my (F.A.-K.); nramziah@ums.edu.my (N.R.J.); siti.nazirah@ums.edu.my (S.N.B.)
*Corresponding author
Email: azlinah@ums.edu.my (A.M.); johannah612@ums.edu.my (J.J.K.); megawati@ums.edu.my (M.M.Y.); huzaikha.ikha@ums.edu.my (H.A.); syafa@ums.edu.my (S.N.S.B.); akfadzil@ums.edu.my (F.A.-K.); nramziah@ums.edu.my (N.R.J.); siti.nazirah@ums.edu.my (S.N.B.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received June 17, 2025; revised June 30, 2025; accepted August 7, 2025; published December 19, 2025
Abstract—Biodiversity conservation is dependent on human knowledge and understanding of nature and society. Conventional teaching created a formalism in students’ interpretations of biodiversity. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Learn-before-Lecture (LBL) approach through pre-lecture activities on biodiversity topics among pre-university students. A total of 80 pre-university students were randomly assigned to the Treatment Group (TG) and the Control Group (CG). Pre-lecture interventions included organizing materials and activities for TG a week before the scheduled lecture class, while CG followed the conventional teaching method. Both groups completed pre- and post-test quizzes for evaluations. The result reported that while both groups showed improvements from pre-test to post-test, the post-test mean score of the CG (13.16) was significantly higher than the TG (10.77). Statistical analysis confirmed a significant difference in post-test performance between the two groups, favouring the CG. This suggests that the CG outperformed the TG after the LBL intervention. The questions distributed to students were observed with excellent difficulty (53.125±5.473) and a fair discriminative index (0.296±0.049). These results show that the LBL method, as implemented in this study, did not enhance student performance compared to conventional teaching. Hence, the findings suggest that although the LBL approach is pedagogically promising, it may require improved design with better integration, support mechanisms, or motivational components to be effective in pre-university biodiversity education.
Keywords—learn-before-lecture, biology, biodiversity, pre-university, Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Keywords—learn-before-lecture, biology, biodiversity, pre-university, Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Cite: Azlinah Matawali, Johannah Jamalul Kiram, Megawati Mohd Yunus, Huzaikha Awang, Sitty Nur Syafa Bakri, Fadzilah Awang-Kanak, Nur Ramziahrazanah Jumat, and Siti Nazirah Butai, "Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Learn-before-Lecture Approach on Biodiversity Education for Pre-University Students," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 2789-2795, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).