EFFECT OF CONSTRUCTIVIST-BASED LEARNING STRATEGIES ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SOCIAL STUDIES CONCEPTS IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE
ABSTRACT
The high rate of social problems in our society (such as kidnapping, examination malpractices, terrorism etc) which in turn creating an economic mal-function and under-development of the nation which is so significant to our nation Nigeria, low academic achievement in both internal and external examination of junior Social Studies student and the inability of the Social Studies students to apply the knowledge acquired in school to solve real life situations has necessitated this study. The study therefore finds out effect of constructivist-based learning strategies on students’ achievement and interest in junior secondary Social Studies concepts in Nsukka Education Zone. To ensure that the study achieved what it was designed for, six research questions were raised and six hypotheses were formulated and tested. Many literatures were reviewed. A quasi-experimental research design was used. The population of this study consists of all the junior secondary co-education school students (4182) of Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. A sample of 260 students was drawn. The instruments developed for these studies were Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) and Social Studies Interest Inventory (SSII). The data obtained were analyzed using means and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using analysis of covariate (ANCOVA). The reliability of SSAT and SSII were determined using KR-20 reliability method. The tests were administered twice after a week interval to determine the reliability of SSAT with the use of Pearson moment correlation and the internal consistency of SSII were ascertained using Cronbach alpha procedure. The result of the analyses indicated that the effect of treatment and gender was not a significant factor in students’ achievement and interest in Social Studies. Students taught using constructivist-based learning strategies performed significantly better than their counterparts who were taught using lecture method in both SSAT and SSII respectively. Based on the findings it was recommended that teachers should incorporate constructivist-based learning strategies in their teaching and learning in the classroom in order to provide the students with diverse, engaging and challenging tasks for internalization of learning and proper attainment of Social Studies goals.