GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of discussion method and lecture method on students’ academic achievement in social studies in Akwa Ibom State. Qausi experimental of 2 X 3 factorial designs was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in Akwa Ibom State. The target population for this study was all the Junior Secondary Two (JS2) Social Studies students in all the public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 150 students from a centrally located secondary school in Akwa Ibom State. It was the use of intact classes drawn from the 3 arms of JS2 class from the selected secondary school centrally located. Each of the 3 arms of the JSS 2 class used for the study had 50 students. This gave a total of 150 participants in the study. The main instruments used in this study were questionnaire titled "Social Studies Achievement Test Questionnaire (SOSAT)" and "Social Studies Self-Concept Questionnaire (SSCQ)". In order to ascertain the validity of the instruments, (SOSAT) and (SSCQ) were given to experts in social studies at Abia State University, Uturu, and the researcher supervisors to screen for face and content validity. The instrument was again re-administered to the same group of students, and the scores generated on the first and second administrations of the instruments were subjected to analysis using independent t-test statistics. The reliability coefficient, or index, was 0.89 for SOSAT. With these indices, the instruments were considered valid, reliable, and capable of measuring the intended events with consistency. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that the discussion and lecture methods are important as a learning process because they are a way of considering various facets of a problem and also because they lay the groundwork for many discussion situations in which young people and adults are constantly taking part. One of the recommendations made in the study was that, considering the role of Social Studies in the lives of learners, the school system, Nigerian society and the world at large, it is therefore imperative that secondary school students should be well grounded in the discipline for Nigeria to attain the state of national development it desires and to rank favourably among the committee of nations.

KEYWORDS: Discussion Method, Lecture Method, Students’ Academic Achievement & Social Studies.