EFFECT OF COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN ECONOMICS IN ABAKALIKI EDUCATION ZONE OF EBONYI STATE

Abstract

The study explored the effect of Cognitive Apprenticeship Instructional Strategy (CAIS) on secondary school students' achievement and retention in Economics in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. Quasi experimental design was used in the study. The specific quasi experimental design was pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. The population of this study comprised four thousand, five hundred and eighty (4,580) SS2 students in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State from the sixty-nine (69) co-educational public senior secondary schools in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebony State. The sample of this study consisted of one hundred and ninety-eight (198) SSII Economics students in two co-educational secondary schools. Intact classes were used. There are sixty-eight co-educational public secondary schools in Abakaliki Education Zone. The instruments for data collection were Economics Achievement Test (EAT) and Economics Retention Test (ERT). The instruments for data collection were Economics Achievement Test (EAT) and the Economics Retention Test (ERT) together with the lesson plans with reliability index of 0.93. The experimental group was taught using Cognitive Apprenticeship Instructional Strategy while the control group was taught using lecture method. The Extraneous Variables were also control by various measures. Pre-EAT was administered to the two groups before treatment by the teachers. At the end of the treatment session, Post-EAT was conducted to determine the retention ability of students. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Co-variance (ACOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that among other things that students taught Economics with Cognitive Apprenticeship Instructional Strategy had higher achievement scores M=43.21,SD=3.95, than those taught with lecture method M=36.36,SD=3.67; that male and female students taught Economics with CAIS had the same achievement scores after instructional treatment; that students taught Economics with CAIS had high retention ability(M=43.63,SD=3.75) than those taught with lecture method(M=36.35,SD=4.26), and that gender and instructional methods can bring about students' retention in Economics. Therefore the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught Economics with CAIS and those taught using lecture method was rejectedF1,193=8.91,P<0.003. based on these findings, the study recommended among other things that Economics teachers should be encouraged to use CAIS while teaching Economics concepts especially the ones involving demand and supply, wage determination, trade union and Unemployment as it relates to human society.