EFFECT OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON UPPER BASIC SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES

The study was designed and conducted to determine the effectiveness of the Collaborative learning instructional strategy (CLIS) in influencing students’ achievement and retention in Upper Basic Secondary School Social Studies. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. A Quasi-Experimental Pre-test, Post-test, Non-equivalent Control Group Design was adopted for the study. A sample of 124 upper Basic VII Social Studies students, drawn by both purposive and simple random sampling techniques from two co-educational schools in Agege Education District 1 was used for the study. The two schools were assigned to experimental and control groups respectively. Two intact classes in each school-(one as experimental and the other one as control group) were randomly selected. The experimental and control groups were taught the concept of values, leadership and followership, science and technology by the regular social studies teachers. Three instruments Pre-SSAT, Post-SSAT and Retention Test were developed, duly validated and reliability of coefficient (.086) before using them for data collection. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at (0.05) using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The result of data analysis showed that, there is a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught social studies with collaborative learning instructional strategy and those taught with lecture method. There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students exposed to collaborative learning instructional strategy. There is a significant difference in the mean achievement score of students exposed to collaborative learning instructional strategy in their post-test and retention test. A major educational implication of the findings is that the use of Collaborative learning Instructional Strategy (CLIS) was found to be more effective than the lecture method on students’ achievement and retention. Based on these, some recommendations were made that seminars and workshops should be organized by government and relevant professional bodies like Social Studies Association of Nigeria (SOSSAN) should educate teachers on the use of Collaborative learning as they may not be familiar with it.