Effects of Artificial Intelligence Enriched Inquiry-Based Strategy on Performance in Chemistry among Secondary School Students in Zaria Metropolis, Kaduna, Nigeria

This study investigated the effects of ChatGPT enriched inquiry-based strategy (IBS+ChatGPT) on secondary school students’ performance in Chemistry. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest group design was adapted. A sample of 103 (63 in experimental and 40 in control groups) secondary students were randomly selected from a population of 7,116 students across 17 public schools in Zaria. The experimental group was taught using IBS+ChatGPT while the control was taught using the conventional method. Data were collected using the chemical reaction and equilibrium performance test (CREPT), which was validated and yielded a reliability coefficient of .85.  Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research questions were answered using mean, standard deviation and bar charts. The hypotheses were tested at α=.05 level of significance using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with pretest performance scores as a covariate. The result showed no significant difference in students’ performance between the experimental (M= 51.08, SD= 11.716) and control (M= 39.20, SD= 10.493) groups, F(df) = 103, p= .068 That is, there was an improved performance of students taught using the IBS+ChatGPT as compared to those taught using the conventional method after accounting for the initial differences between the two groups. However, there was no sufficient evidence to claim this improved performance is not due to random errors. Further, the result showed no significant difference in the performance of male (M= 53.61, SD= 11.093) and female (M= 46.36, SD= 11. 623) students taught using IBS+ChatGPT, F(df) = 63, p= .385 indicating that the IBS+ChatGPT was gender friendly. It was recommended that future studies should use a longer treatment period to better determine the effectiveness of the strategy