Group Based Learning And Academic Achievement Of Upper Basic 2 Students’ In Pre-Vocational Studies In Umuahia North Local Government Area Of Abia State

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of Group based instructional strategy on upper basic two (junior secondary school two) students’ achievement in Prevocational studies in Umuahia North Local Government of Abia State. The study adopted a quasi-experimental control design; specifically the pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design was used. Two research questions were posed, and one hypothesis formulated to guide the study which was carried out in a Government co-education school in Umuahia North Council Area in Umuahia Education Zone of Abia State. Eighty-seven (87) JSS two students were used for the study. The study is a quasi- experimental study which employed pretest posttest control design and a 2x2 factorial design.  Instrument used for data collection was Pre-vocational Studies Achievement Test (PSAT) developed by the researchers. PSAT was validated by three experts and the reliability coefficient using Kuder Richardson (KR-20) was found to be 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significance level. The result revealed a significant factor on students’ achievement in Pre-vocational studies. Thus, it was confirmed that students taught Pre-vocational studies using Group based instructional strategy performed better than those taught using the lecture method. The result also revealed that gender was not a factor in achievement of students in Pre-vocational studies. It was recommended among other things that efforts should be made by curriculum experts to incorporate Group based instructional strategy, teaching strategy into the teaching of pre-vocational studies.