An Investigation into The Achievement of Junior Secondary School Students Taught Integrated Science Using the Cooperative Learning Strategy in Nigeria
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cooperative learning strategy, self-esteem, classroom motivation and learning achievementAbstract
The Instructional strategy is an important variable that affect students’ achievement in science in the classroom setting. The search for the effective strategies that would empower learners to exhibit improved science achievement is the purpose of this work. This study investigated the effect of cooperative learning strategy on the junior secondary school students’ achievement in Integrated Science in Adamawa State. Pre-test, Post-test quasi experimental research design was employed for variable matching. The population was made of all JSS III Students in Adamawa State Secondary Schools in 2011 academic session. The sample consists of 256 JSSIII Students made up of 84 Students in E1 Lecture Method group, 70 Students in E2 Cooperative Learning Strategy group alone and 72 in E3 Cooperative Learning Strategy and Lecture Method group. The treatment groups where randomly selected among selected participating schools intact classes were also randomly selected from the schools where there is more than one arm of JSSIII. Intact teachers known as research assistants after being trained by the researchers administered the treatment in order to remove teacher bias. The instruments used for Data Collection were a 50 items Integrated Science Achievement Test (ISAT). The reliability value of ISAT is 0.71. The instrument was administered before treatment (Pre-test) and after the treatment (Post-test). The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) was also used to detect the magnitude of Significant Variations. The results showed that: (i) There was a Significant main effect of treatment on achievement (F (2,207) = 740.95, P<.05). Results show that all the treatment groups benefitted from the treatment. The Lecture group benefitted the least followed by the Cooperative Teaching Strategy group alone; the Lecture Method combine d with Cooperative Learning Strategy group benefitted the most. These findings have implications for the Classroom teacher, students, curriculum designers, text book writers and publishers. In line with these findings it was recommended that Cooperative Learning Strategy, together with Lecture could serve as a viable alternative to the Conventional Lecture Method particularly in the teaching of Integrated Science to Secondary School Students.
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