Effect of Peer Tutoring Instructional Strategy on Students’ Achievement and Interest in Social Studies in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu State

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of peer-tutoring instructional strategy on students’ achievement and interest in social studies in secondary schools in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State. The design adopted in this study is a quasi-experimental, precisely a non-randomize, non equivalent pretest, posttest control group design. The target population of the study was the entire junior secondary III (JSS III) social studies students in Nsukka Local Government, Enugu State. One hundred and fifty seven (157) social studies students were purposively sampled from four intact classes from two purposively selected co-educational secondary schools in Nsukka Local Government and were used for the study. The main instruments used for data collection were the Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) and Social Studies Interest Scale (SSIS). Data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the four research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that there was a significant (p < 0.05) difference in the mean achievement scores and interest mean scores of students taught social studies using peer-tutoring instructional strategy and those taught social studies by their regular social studies teachers in favour of those taught using peer-tutoring; There was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in the mean achievement score of male and female students taught social studies using peer tutoring instructional strategy and those taught social studies without peer tutoring instructional strategy. One of the implications of these findings is that the use of conventional method of teaching social studies cannot lead to effective teaching of social studies and could not enhance students’ achievement and interest. It was recommended among others that seminars and workshops should be organized by the State government to educate teachers on the use of peer tutoring in teaching social studies