ABSTRACT: The study examined the Influence of Cooperative Learning Strategy on Academic Achievement of Economics Students. Research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The quasi-experimental design was employed in the study. The population of the study was 614 JS2 students who registered for physical education in 2015/2016 academic session in all the 9 public secondary schools and 100 students in four intact classes formed the sample size of the study. The instrument for data collection was a Economics Performance Test (EPT). The data collected were analyzed using independent t-test. Findings showed that there is a significant difference between academic achievement of male and female students who learn co-operatively and those who learn individually and that is no significant difference in academic achievement of male and female students who learn co-operatively in Economics in secondary schools in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.
Influence of Cooperative Learning Strategy on Academic Achievement of Economics Students
Based on the findings, it was recommended that: students should be hard working while studying in groups and that teacher should interact healthfully.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The quest for quality in education in nations throughout the world is the foundation for qualitative development. The quality, philosophy and principles have become central to international educational reforms as every nation seeks quality products and services through educational renewal and school instruction Caldwell, 1985 in Akpan Uwandu & Ekanem (2013). This has given rise to the experimentation of several teaching and learning strategies which are aimed at improving academic performance of the students in terms of their ability to contribute meaningfully to the economy of their nations.
Educators have evolved some strategies which can help the students to construct knowledge. These strategies may not be used independent of the teacher thus it can be combined with any teaching method to attain stated objectives. Some of these strategies include Team Teaching, Concept Mapping, Co-operative Learning, Peer Tutoring, etc. They have been employed in different subject areas and to diverse set of students with varied outcomes.
Co-operative learning is one of the strategies which is students centred and aimed at making the students use their abilities to construct knowledge. To cooperate simply means working together towards achieving the same aim or goals for common interest. Cooperative therefore pictures ones willingness to assist or help in solving problems in a joint effort often time the teaching/learning system has been seen to be one sided on the grounds that only the teachers do the talking while learners sit and listen. But recently, the teaching/learning process has been made to be learners centered especially in the area of science by introducing new teaching methods that involves the learners. According to Akpan (2008), activity based method of teaching are the best in getting individual learners into active participation with classroom situation. Here Akpan looks at learning as an individual thing which can only take place when the learners are involves as one cannot learn for another and without being present in the class to be instructed.
Furthermore, the fact that some learners are faster than others makes learning in the general or conventional classroom to suffer some setbacks. To carry everyone along the teacher must often time share learners into groups to work together on a given learning material to achieve a common goal. This is referred to as cooperative learning. For learning to be effective in these groups, some strategies must be put in place by the teacher who will act as the supervisor.
Influence of Cooperative Learning Strategy on Academic Achievement of Economics Students
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite the expected benefits of teaching social science (Economics inclusive) in the Secondary Schools as noted by Effiong (2015), the benefits of the study of Economics in schools and colleges has not been felt in the economy and awareness of the citizenry. This failure has been attributed to several factors as it has become a cause of concern not only to teachers but to government and society at large.
According to several researchers like Hardner (2014), Noah (2015) most people blame teachers, their qualification, their experiences, limited available resources, method of lesson delivery, lack of student’s concentration amongst others. However, government over the years has trained and re-trained Economics Teachers, reviewed the curriculum and enforced students discipline but with limited improvement in academic achievement of economics students. This become a motivating background for the researcher to ask whether the learning strategies such as cooperative learning could influence the academic achievement of students in economics since it has been noted that group work in schools get everybody involved and benefit all members of the group. The quest for answer to the above question triggers the researcher’s interest to investigate into the influence of cooperative learning on the academic achievement of students in Economics in secondary schools in the study area with a view of proffering a lasting solution to the problem.
