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Successful implementations of scientific ideas are interlinked with a number of factors. The curriculum planners have drafted the curriculum in an ascending order of difficulties of scientific concepts. This supports the Pigetian invariant sequence of development of concepts along age (Piaget, 1970 and Tumbel-2013). The curriculum highlights difficulties and complexity of concepts along with increase in grades. But learning of new concepts depends upon existing properties of cognitive structure, developmental status and intellectual ability of the learner, nature of concepts and ways of presentation (Asubel et al. 1978). Again, Bruner’s contribution to the process of education shifts the origin of focus to some other point, his hypotheses (Bruner, 1960) that “any subject can be taught to student at any grade or age level effectively”. The complexity of these problems springs from, when there is no support of research findings on selection and gradation of these concepts in biological science curriculum.

Biology, the science of life, is a meaningful study about living organisms. It deals with the problems of what they are and how they work, interact and evolve? Hence, biological study everything which has a reference to the living things. The current century is set to experience an explosion of information from the field of biology. People bearing the knowledge of modern biology are increasingly in demand and will continue to be so. Biology affects our daily lives and our future too. Cancer, food production, poverty, population explosion, AIDS, biodiversity, pollution, global warming  are the burning issues which are concerned to human welfare are dealt with biology. The full range of topics covered in the biological sciences includes some of the most important aspects that affect human life on earth as well as in space. The development and use of modern medicine depends on the understanding of cell structure and microbiology. Understanding of the functions of tissues, organs and organ systems of the human body is also important in this respect.

The first concern the nature of the context of mind what we call knowledge is represented mentally in terms of concepts. Concepts are the ideas within which we think. Technically concepts are our internal mental representations of the properties of objects and events. Concepts neither are not real objects nor are they literal representations of objects or events. For example, the concept of triangle is not as the same as a particular triangle. The word ‘triangle’ is a mental image of a triangle. Concepts are abstract and general in nature and are regarded as the ‘ideas’ behind the objects, events, words or images.The Concept  Attainment  Model of  teaching is a unique approach to instruction  that involves the active engagement of students in the process of identifying and internalizing key concepts through the use of inductive reasoning( Alam and Fatma-2023).

The present study is a causal comparative study in which both independent effect of gender status in the attainment of biological science concepts  in general and at different levels in particular like concrete, identity, classificatory & formal in higher secondary school male and female students have been investigated following 2 Factorial Design (Male Vs Female).

Population: - In the present study the population consists  of all science students who had just completed higher secondary education under C.H.S.E. syllabus, Orissa. The population comprised the higher secondary schools students of  both the sexes   in the state of Orissa.

Sample: - In the present study sample of 240 students were selected from the population using multistage sampling method. Since the study was conducted in the state of Orissa the investigator selected 10 districts randomly by using simple random sampling method.. From each district, two  higher secondary school with 12 male and 12 Female students were selected randomly. Therefore in the present study 240 higher secondary science students were included as sample for investigation  

Selected Total sample (240)
Male	Female
(120)	(120)

Tools Used

Since the main objective of the study was to investigate the attainment of biological science concepts in higher secondary school male and female students, the investigator developed a biological science concept attainment test (BSCAT) .

Biological Science Concept Attainment Test (BSCAT)  The biological science concept attainment test was developed by the investigator on the basis of  cognitive theory of learning and development (CLD) originated by Klausemeier  and Allen (1978).The CLD theory is  based on the assumptions that cognitive development occurs due to interaction of learning and maturational factors, and the internal  and external conditions of learning necessarily  change the  higher levels of cognitive functioning. Further, the theory states that attainment of concept is the primary requirement of higher order mental operations. A concept is attended at four successive levels viz concrete, identity, classificatory and formal. At concrete level a concept is attended by recognising the perceptible feature of an object, discriminating object from other objects and remembering the discriminated object. Identity level of a concept is attended by generalising the object when experienced in different context or modalities as the same object and remembering the generalisation along with other three aspects of concrete level. A concept is attended at classificatory level by discriminating  examples of the concept from non examples, remembering the discriminated examples, generalising that each example when experienced in different context or modalities is the same example and generalising that the examples are equivalent (belongs to the same class) and rendering the generalisation. A concept is attended at formal level when a societal accepted definition of the object is given.

BSCAT is developed by the investigator to measure biological science concepts in so higher secondary school students at four successive levels of concepts attainment following four steps such as planning, preparation, trying out and evaluation.

Since the main purpose of the study is to investigate the independent  effects of  community in attainment of biological science concepts in higher secondary schools, two way  (Non Tribal Vs Tribal)  analysis of variance ANOVA described Ferguson (1781) was been used to analyse data. F ratios have been tested for their significance at 0.05 and 0.01 levels. 

Data collected from tribal and  non tribal higher secondary school students by administering biological science concept attainment test were analysed using two 2 (Male vs Female)] way analysis of variance (Guilford, 1983 Sindhu et.al. 2012). The F ratios obtained were tested for their significance at 0.05 and 0.01 levels respectively.. The summaries of analysis of variances showing  independent effects of community status in biological concept attainment have been given in different tables. Each table has been discussed in detail.

Concept attainment: - The effect of gender bias

Table .1: Summary of ANOVA showing effect of gender bias in attainment of biological science concepts (N=240)

Source of variation	Sum of squares	D.F.	Mean square	F	P
Sex	64.06	1	64.06	1.79	0.05

Table 1 shows that sex had no significant independent effect in attainment of biological science concept in higher secondary school students (F = 1.79 ; P > 0.05). The performances of the male students were similar to the performance of female students. Therefore, the null hypothesis stating that there exists no significance difference between male and female students in attainment of biological science concept was retained. Thus it is concluded that male and female students of higher secondary school are in the same level of attainment of biological science concepts.

Concept attainment at concrete level: The effect of gender bias 

Table 2: Summary of ANOVA showing effect of gender bias in attainment of biological science concepts at concrete level (N=240)

Source of variation	Sum of squares	D.F.	Mean square	F	P
Sex	9.20	1	9.20	1.75	0.05

Table 2 shows that sex had no significant independent effect in attainment of biological science concept at concrete level in higher secondary school students (F=1.75; P> 0.05) . The performances of the male students were similar to the performance of female students. Therefore, the null hypothesis stating that there exists no significance difference between male and female students in attainment of biological science concept at concrete level was retained. Thus, it is concluded that male and female students of higher secondary school are in the same level of attainment of biological science concepts at concrete level.

 Table 3: Summary of ANOVA showing effect of gender bias in attainment of biological science concepts at identity level(N=240).

Source of variation	Sum of squares	D.F	Mean square	F	P
Sex	0.3	1	0.03	183.63	0.01

Table 3 shows that gender bias had significant independent effect on the attainment of biological science concept at identity  level in the students of higher secondary school (F=183.63;P<0.01)) )The individual mean score of the tribal higher secondary school students was higher than the individual mean score of the tribal higher secondary school students.The performance of the students belonging to non tribal community was significantly better than the performance of the students belonging to tribal community in attainment of biological science concepts at identity level. Therefore, the null hypothesis stating that there exists no significance of difference between non tribal and tribal higher secondary school students in attainment of biological science concept was rejected. Thus, it is concluded that tribal community retards attainment of biological science concepts at identity level in the students significantly

Concept attainment at classificatory level: The effect of gender bias

Table 4: Summary of ANOVA showing effect of community in attainment of biological science concepts at classificatory level(N=240)

Source of variation	sum of squares	D.F.	mean square	F	P
Sex	2.81	1	2.81	0.59	0.01

Table 4  displays that sex had no significant independent effect in attainment of biological science concept at classificatory level in higher secondary school students (F=0.59; P> 0.01) . The performances of the male students were similar to the performance of female students. Therefore, the null hypothesis stating that there exists no significance difference between male and female students in attainment of biological science concept at classificatory level was retained. Thus, it is concluded that male and female students of higher secondary school are in the same level of attainment of biological science concept at classificatory level.

Table 5: Summary of ANOVA showing effect of  community in attainment of biological science concepts at formal level

(N=240)                                                                         

Source of  variation	Sum of squares	D.F	Mean square	F	P
Sex	12.00	1	12.00	2.79	0.01

Table 5 reveals that sex had no significant independent effect in attainment of biological science concept at formal level in higher secondary school students (F=2.79; P> 0.01) . The performances of the male students were similar to the performance of female students. Therefore, the null hypothesis stating that there exists no significance difference between male and female students in attainment of biological science concept at formal level was retained. Thus, it is concluded that male and female students of higher secondary school are in the same level of attainment of biological science concept at formal level. 

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