Social studies teachers and students attitudes toward cooperative learning method in junior secondary schools in Port Harcourt (Published)
The study investigated social studies teachers and students attitudes toward Cooperative Learning Method (CLM) in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in Port Harcourt Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental design was used. A total of 240 JSS II students with an average age of 12 years and 11 social studies teachers participated in the study. Two validated 10-item instruments, Students Attitude towards Cooperative Learning Method Scale (SATCLMS) and Teachers Attitude towards Cooperative Learning Method Scale (TATCLMS) were used for data collection. The test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instruments to obtain reliability indices of 0.78 and 0.86 for SATCLMS and TATCLMS respectively. Two research questions guided the exploration. Percentages and frequency were used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study were that both teachers and students had positive attitudes towards CLM, however, teachers had more positive attitudes toward CLM than the students. It was recommended among others that teachers of social studies should adopt the CLM in their instructions in the classroom so as to impact on the attitudes of the students.
Keywords: Cooperative learning method, Social Studies, Student, Teacher, attitude, junior secondary school
Gender influence on the attitudinal disposition of junior secondary school students toward Cooperative Learning Method in Port Harcourt, Nigeria (Published)
This study explored the impact of gender on the attitudinal disposition of junior secondary school students toward Cooperative Learning Method in Port Harcourt. The quasi-experimental design was adopted. A total of 240 JSS II students took part in the study. There was a total of 120 JSSII students in the experimental and control groups respectively which gave a total of 240 respondents. Only the result of 120 students in the experimental groups was presented in this study. A validated 10-item instrument, Students Attitude towards Cooperative Learning Method Scale (SATCLMS) was used for data collection. The test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of SATCLMS to obtain an index of r=0.78. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research question whereas independent sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study indicated that the attitude of the male students was slightly more positive than the attitude of the female students towards cooperative learning methods. However, the observed mean difference not statistically significant across sexes. It was recommended among others that teachers of social studies should endeavour to adopt CLM to impact on the attitudes of students in social studies.
Keywords: Cooperative learning method, Gender, junior secondary students’ attitude