EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE TEACHING APPROACH ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN ECONOMICS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of cooperative teaching approach on senior secondary schools students’ academic achievement in Economics in Anambra State, Nigeria. To guide the study, two research questions were raised and two corresponding hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design using pre-test and post-test with experimental and control groups. The population is 76,542 SS 1 – 3 students in all the 263 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The sample size is 89 senior secondary two (SS II) students offering Economics using purposive and cluster sampling techniques. The instrument used for the collection of data for this study was a researcher developed achievement test titled, Economics Achievement Test (EAT) which contained 20 items of multiple choice questions. EAT was validated by three research specialists. Reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained using Kudder-Richardson 20 statistic (KR-20). The experiments and administration of the instrument lasted for 6 weeks. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that cooperative teaching strategy is effective in the improvement of students’ achievement in Economics more than the lecture method in public senior secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also revealed that both male and female students achieved slightly the same scores when taught Economics using cooperative teaching strategy in public senior secondary schools in Anambra State. It was recommended among others that teachers of Economics should incorporate cooperative strategy as a supplemental or primary instructional strategy in Economics, providing training and incentives for student tutors, and integrating cooperative sessions into the curriculum to maximize its effectiveness in improving students' Economics achievement and bridging learning gaps. Keywords: Academic Achievement, Cooperative teaching strategy, Economics and Gender and Lecture method.