Socio-Constructive Collaborative Method and Pupils’ English Studies Academic Achievement in Southwestern Nigeria

Socio-Constructive Collaborative Method and Pupils’ English Studies Academic Achievement in Southwestern Nigeria

¹Amosun Moses, ²Hannah Ajayi and ³Ogunniyi Lawrence & ⁴Esther Oduolowu (PI)

^1,3,4 Department of Early Childhood and Educational Foundations, University of Ibadan

²Institute of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.802073

Received: 17 January 2024; Accepted: 29 January 2024; Published: 08 March 2024

ABSTRACT

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, children’s schooling was affected. In an attempt to rescue children from falling into memory decline, schools embarked on online teaching and learning. However, this step instead of being a solution created further academic divide among learners in Nigeria especially among primary school pupils in urban and rural areas. Moreover, the common conventional method teachers use in teaching primary school pupils has not really enhanced academic achievement of the pupils. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of a socio-constructive collaborative method on pupils’ English studies academic achievement in southwestern Nigeria. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study includes all 480 pupils from 8 randomly selected schools each in Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states. The study lasted for 15 weeks. Validated primary school pupils’ achievement test in English studies and English studies socio-constructive pedagogical instructional guide were the instruments used for the study. The study found out that there was a significant main effect of intervention on primary school pupils’ English studies achievement (F(1;475) = 8.68; p<0.05; partial ῆ2 = 0.02).The study further showed that pupils exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method have higher English mean score (12.37) than those exposed to the conventional method (11.04). The study also found out that those exposed to the socio-constructive collaborative method have higher English studies mean scores in both urban and rural settings. It was concluded that the socio-constructive collaborative method should be adopted as an instructional strategy that can foster equal-accessed context-based primary education.

Key words: Socio-constructive, Collaborative method. Pupils’ achievement, English studies, Southwestern.

INTRODUCTION

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria early 2020 like any other nation of the world affected almost all aspects of Nigeria sectors. Education area was not spared. This is because schools were closed down and children, pupils and students were asked to go home for health reasons. Thus, pupils in primary schools who are already vulnerable group because of their age were at risk of having their learning and wellbeing significantly compromised. The implication of this is that pupils may be experiencing learning losses in their cognitive and other areas of development. The introduction and implementation of different home-based, online and offline learning activities became handy in order to mitigate the negative consequences of pupil’s inability to go to school. However, the introduction and implementation of different home-based, online and offline learning activities could not totally compensate for the learning losses (Brown, Te Riele, Shelley and Woodroffe, 2020). This is because many families lack technological resources to support learning at home. Also, parents and caregivers did not have adequate time to help children learn (Akintemi and Amosun, 2020) while some parents and teachers have no or little technological know-how to support their wards on online teaching (Ayoola, Amosun and Eyengho, 2013). This often led to digital divide between the learners at the rural and urban settings which directly or indirectly affect the achievement of primary school pupils in English Studies.

Recently, pupils’ achievement in English studies have been the focus of educationists and researchers (Obijiofor, and Obumneke-Okeke, 2020, Amosun, 2015) English studies is one of the core subjects in primary school as well as serving as medium of instruction in the primary level of education. It is important because without a good grasp and knowledge in English studies, instructional exchanges and understanding of other subjects which are usually taught in English language will not be possible. The fact that our classroom setting in Nigeria especially in urban setting are diverse and contains pupils from different background makes English studies to play a very significant roles in the Nigerian educational system.

Despite the roles English studies play in the teaching and learning process of primary school pupils, it has been revealed that many pupils are facing the challenge of inability to read and write, understand what they read and master the speaking skill, which tend to have adverse effects on learners’ academic achievement and motivation towards learning. (Ubulom and Adoki , 2016; Maha, Suad and Jamal, 2016). In line with the above, Amosun (2014) opined that the quality of primary education in Nigeria has not been encouraging as evidenced in half-baked products creating serious problem for other levels of education. Iroegbu (2012) revealed that language inefficiency among primary schools’ pupils could be caused by several language problems such as poor reading culture, lack of appropriate models at school and home, and use of poor reading material among others. This inability of primary school pupils to achieve outstandingly has been traced to different causes which include teacher’s continual use of conventional method which encourages less practical, more theoretical and memorizing (Wabwoba, Okoh and Mugambi, 2017).

Conventional method is also referred to as lecture method of teaching or teacher-centred method in which learners receive information from the teacher to the detriment of building engagement level of the pupils in the subject that the teacher teaches. It makes use of no or little application of activity-based learning to encourage pupils to learn about practical and real-life issues (Wabwoba, Okoh and Mugambi, 2017). However, in order to avoid loss of interest and comprehension on the part of learners, which lecture methods encourage, education researchers have been trying to introduce teaching methods that do not merely encourage memorization and passivity in children but engage learners as primary participants and other educational stakeholders such as role-playing, study-assignment, cooperative, participatory and collaborative methods among others (Obijiofor and Obumneke-Okeke, 2020, Backer, Miller and Timer, 2018, Dorgu 2015)

Collaborative method can be described as a tool that allows for increased engagement of learners by the teacher. The teacher can make use of both community people as well as learners to bring about learning. When this is involved, it may lead to what is called socio-constructive collaborative method which emphasizes learning through social interaction, and cultural background of the learners. Thus, culture gives the child the cognitive tools needed for development and learning. Where adults in the learner’s environment are conduits for the tools of the culture, which include language, cultural history and social context among others.

Recently, studies that are socio-cultural, socio-constructive and learner-centred are being carried out among pre-primary and primary school children in order to encourage and enhance learners’ optimal development of knowledge, skills and values that are relevant for the sustainable development of our nation (Majebi and Oduolowu, 2019, Olowe, 2019, Ayoola, Amosun and Olusola, 2019, Amosun and Kolawole, 2015 ). Similarly, education stakeholders in Nigeria are advocating for collaboration to support opportunities that will sustain teaching and learning, since COVID-19 pandemic (Egbeocha, 2020). This implies that before effective learning can take place, both internal and external stakeholders of children’s education will be involved. It is essential therefore to examine in this study whether or not use of collaborative method other than overused conventional method will benefit primary school pupils.

Another variable in this study which is of interest to the researchers is school location.  The location of a school may determine the level of performance of a pupil in the sense that the physical environment whether rural or urban is capable of influencing the extent to which a pupil can learn and perform. The reason is that urban setting has some features such as health facilities, electric city, pipe born water, well-equipped and pupil- friendly schools which may be absent in rural areas. Literature has revealed that performance of pupils in urban is better than that of rural and vice versa ( Inyang, 2021, Owoeye and Yara, 2011, Alokan,2010). Thus the findings of researchers on location and academic performance of pupils are inconclusive. It is important therefore to investigate location and academic performance of pupils in this study.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Literature has shown that the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria led to closure of school and the consequent loss of learning by the primary school pupils both in rural and urban settings in the area of academic development among others. Efforts to arrest the situation through the use of online learning could not yield the expected result.  The problem was complicated by inability of the teachers to make school pupil-friendly as they continue to deploy conventional methods of teaching that make schooling and learning boring and uninteresting to the pupils. This has often led to adverse effects on the pupils among which are low attendance, truancy and lower academic performance. The researchers therefore assume that deployment of socio-constructive, collaborative method among pupils, with the involvement of teachers and community people which engages pupils may likely mitigate the learning loss brought about as a result of Covid-19 and use of conventional methods and reconnect the pupils to the physical context of school-based learning to improve their academic performance in English studies. The study therefore investigated the effect of a socio-constructive collaborative method on pupils’ English studies academic achievement in southwestern Nigeria.

Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant main effect of intervention on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

Ho2: There is no significant main effect of school location on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

Ho3: There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and school location on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

METHODOLOGY

The study adopted the pretest, posttest, control group quasi experimental design. The study adopted a 2 x 2 factorial matrix which consisted of instructional strategies at 2 levels (one experimental group and one control group) moderator variables of school location at two levels (urban and rural). The sample of the study consisted of primary school pupils, teachers, across the six states in Southwestern, Nigeria. The selected schools cut across schools in the rural and urban settings.

The number of local government areas (LGAs) in each state ranges from the lowest in Ekiti State with 16 LGAs to the highest in Oyo State with 33 LGAs. In each state, 2 LGAs were randomly selected (1 each from rural and urban settings) to make a total of 12 LGAs. From each LGA, four schools (two each from rural and urban LGAs) were randomly selected to make a total of 48 schools. The population of the study includes all 480 pupils from 8 schools in Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states. The study lasted for 15 weeks. Primary pupils’ achievement test in English studies and English studies socio-constructive pedagogical instructional guide were the instruments used for the study. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance, and Bonferere Post hoc test.

FINDINGS

Ho1: There is no significant main effect of intervention on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

Table 1: Summary of 2 X 2 Analysis of Covariance on Primary Pupils English Scores

Table 1 reveals that there is a significant main effect of intervention on primary pupils’ English score (F_(1;475) = 8.68; p<0.05; partial ῆ² = 0.02). Therefore, hypothesis 1 is rejected. In order to know the magnitude of achievement on English scores of the pupils across the treatment groups, Table 2 is presented.

Table 2: Estimated Marginal Means on Primary Pupils’ English Scores across Treatment Groups

Table 2 shows that pupils exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method have higher English mean score (12.37) than those exposed to conventional method (11.04). The difference between the two group (1.33) is significant.

Ho2: There is no significant main effect of school location on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

Table 1 reveals that there is a significant main effect of school location on primary pupils’ English score (F_(1;475) = 5.00; p<0.05; partial ῆ² = 0.01). Therefore, hypothesis 2 is rejected. In order to know the magnitude of significance Table 3 is presented

Table 3: Estimated Marginal Means on Primary Pupils’ English Scores  school location

Table 2 shows that pupils exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method have higher English mean score (12.21) in urban areas than those in the rural areas (11.20). The difference between the two groups (1.01) is significant.

Ho3: There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and school location on primary pupils’ English studies academic achievement.

Figure 1 shows that those exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method have the higher English mean score in urban setting and they also have higher mean score in the rural setting. Therefore, the interaction effect is ordinal.

Fig. 1: Interaction Effect of Intervention and Location on Primary English Score

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Findings revealed that there was a significant main effect of intervention on the primary school pupils’ English score. The findings further revealed that pupils exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method had higher English mean score than those exposed to the conventional method. This may be because the socio-constructivist classrooms have been established to possess the potential of engaging children actively during the teaching and learning activities. This is in agreement with Gonzalez (2015) and Matthew (2016) that constructivist learning attaches as much meaning to the process of learning as it does to the acquisition of new knowledge.

Findings also revealed that there was a significant main effect of school location on the primary school pupils’ English score. Pupils exposed to socio-constructive and collaborative method had higher English mean score (12.21) in urban areas than those in the rural areas (11.20). This finding agrees with Mendel (2005) that stakeholders’ involvement influences success or failure of early childhood development and educational programmes performance in rural and slum areas.

Findings also revealed that that those exposed to socio-constructive collaborative method had the higher English mean score in urban setting and they also had higher mean score in the rural setting. The findings of this study is in tandem with the findings of Ahmad, (2017) who reported that there was a significant difference between the academic achievement of students exposed to context-based approach than traditional methods. The result of the present study also corroborates Eyenaka, Ekanem, and Uwak, (2013) who investigated the context-based strategy of teaching Senior Secondary School Alternating Currents (A.C) Circuits in Physics and established that context-based teaching strategy was significantly better than the expository method in enhancing students’ transfer of learning in simple alternating current (A.C) circuits in Physics with respect to gender and school location.

CONCLUSION

Context-based approach to learning is the use of real-life and non-fictitious examples in teaching and environment of the learners and their teachers in order to learn through the actual practical experience with a subject rather than just its theoretical parts. This intervention has shown that it promotes context-based education which have been made accessible particularly at primary school level in both the rural and urban settings. This has ensured inclusive, equal-access quality primary education, as suggested in the Sustainable Development Goals is being achieved in Nigeria.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings above, the following are recommended:

First, socio-constructive collaborative method should be adopted as an instructional strategy that can foster equal-accessed context-based primary education.

Second, all education stakeholders especially, parents and community should be encouraged to participate actively in the teaching, learning and development of the pupils.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Sponsored by TETFUND: TEF/ES/DR&D-CE/NRF2020/HSS/21/VOL.1

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