ABSTRACT
The quest for the effective methods of teaching social studies in Nigerian schools is a continuous one. This research is designed to investigate the effects of Integrated Group Based Mastery Learning Model on social studies students’ achievement in junior secondary schools in Benin City. The problem of students’ poor performance and underachievement in social studies has been a major issue of concern and interest in the Nigerian educational sector. Seven research questions and seven corresponding hypotheses were raised to guide the study. A quasi-experimental design of non-equivalent control group was adopted. Two mixed secondary schools were purposively selected from Benin City out of which, two in-tact classes were selected. One of the two classes was used as the experimental group, taught with integrated group based mastery learning model and the other as control group, taught with the traditional/expository instructional model. There were 100 students in the two groups combined. The instrument used for the data collection was the Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT). The data collected were analyzed using t-test of independent sample for hypotheses one, two, three and four. Hypotheses five and six were tested using one-way ANOVA, while hypothesis seven was tested using two-way ANOVA. The hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that there was a significant effect of treatment on social studies students’ achievement. This means that the integrated group based mastery learning model was more effective than the traditional expository method. The result of the study also showed that initial ability level did not have any significant influence on the effect of ML on students’ achievement in social studies. It was concluded that students’ achievement in social studies is more likely to improve if more teachers employ the mastery learning. It is recommended that social studies teachers should be encouraged through in-service training, seminars or other forms of on-the-job training to employ mastery learning models. Also, teacher-education in the universities and colleges of education should intensify the teaching of skills related to the application of mastery learning model.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The recent socio- political and economic changes in the world and within nations have brought about changes in educational goals and greater challenges for social studies. The schools are called not only to equip the learner with basic knowledge of social studies content but also with higher cognitive skills, such as problem solving and thinking skills that allow for self-development and continuous learning. To meet up with these challenges, there is a movement away from the behaviourist method of direct teaching such as in the lecture method, note copying and dictations, where the learner is given contents to memorize and regurgitate. Social Studies as a discipline continues to enjoy changes in educational objectives. In the 20th century, History, Economics, Government and Geography were taught as separate subjects with a listed series of facts to be memorised. With changes in educational outcomes students’ learning had to be reconsidered and taught as integrated discipline. Emphasis is now shifted from learning as acquisition of facts to learning as utilization of facts; from learning as memorization (from Geography and History texts), to learning as a process of discovering important relationships and principles inductively; from learning for learning sake to learning as a way of inquiring and thinking according to the processes of the Social Sciences. This can only be achieved through the process of mastery learning strategy (Onibokun, 1999). Social studies as a subject is of a fairly recent origin throughout the world. The concept of social studies was first developed in USA in 1916 by the committee on social studies of the commission on the reorganization of secondary education of the National Education Association (Jarolimek 1977). Later in I930s social studies was introduced into Europe especially in Great Britain due to unprecedented enthusiasm to reform the conventional curriculum to meet up with the demands of the society. From 1950 to 1956, the subject had spread to many African Countries. The new independent nations of Africa were faced with how to re-order their national policies to enable them perform their expected roles as independent nations within the world community of nations. The development of social studies in secondary schools in Nigeria gained momentum from the year 1977 after the introduction of National Policy on Education popularly known as the 6-3-3-4 system. This rapid progress was caused by two major factors. The first was that the Universal Primary Education (UPE) introduced in 1976 made social studies the only social science subject to be taught in the primary schools. The second factor was that social studies was made a core subject for the junior secondary school. This has brought a lot of awareness to the students and the teachers on the significant roles of social studies especially as it affects the implementation of 6-3-3-4 system of education.
In order to implement the national policy on education, government at all levels became more interested in the schooling process in terms of educational outcomes, learning activities, instructional resources, instructional strategies and evaluation procedures. In view of this, emphasis has been on the need to:
v make educational activities centre on the learner for maximum self-development and self-fulfillment.
v structure the educational system to develop the practice of self -learning (FRN, 2004).
The implication of these for classroom teachers is that, they should develop a teaching approach which encourages the learners to participate in the learning processes. Despite the efforts of Government in restructuring the educational system to develop the practice of self-learning, the dominant approach to instruction in schools has been the expository type especially since the inception of western education in Nigeria in 1843.
Other methods of instruction were later introduced into the learning processes. For instance, since 1960, curriculum planners have emphasized the inquiry approach by claiming that carrying out investigations is the most promising method by which students will master inquiry skills and become literate in social studies (Schwab, 1963; Yager & Lutz, 1994). Even at that, it cannot be said that schools have done well in developing such skills in the learners. Quite a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the causes of students’ under achievement in Junior Secondary Social Studies (Onasanya, 1985; Ogbu, 1993; Iroegbu, 1998; Adegbite, 1999; Adepoju, 1999) and the most reoccurring factor in all is the inadequate teaching method used by Social Studies teachers.