EFFECTS OF SCAFFOLDING INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION IN ABAKALIKI EDUCATION ZONE OF EBONYI STATE.

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of scaffolding instructional method of teaching on junior secondary school students’ academic achievement in social studies in Abakaliki education zone of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Quasi-experimental research design was adopted, specifically a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design was used. The population of the study was 638 junior secondary two (JSS2) students in the zone. A sample of 210 students drawn from four out of 36 junior secondary schools was involved in the study. The instrument for data collection was Social Studies Multiple Choice Test(SOSMCT)  which was validated  by three experts and one experienced social studies teacher. The reliability of SOSMCT was established using the Kunder-Richardson formulae 20 and the reliability index of 0.82 was obtained.  The data obtained were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and analysis of covariance. The findings of the study revealed among others that the use of the scaffolding instructional method/strategy in teaching social studies enhanced academic achievement scores of students more than the use of conventional method which favour the males. Also gender had a significant influence on academic achievement of students taught with the scaffolding instructional strategy which was also in favour of males.  It was recommended that school management, education ministries and other professional bodies should organize seminars and workshops from time to time for in-service training of social studies teachers to acquaint them with conferences, innovative teaching methods and strategies such as the scaffolding instructional technique for effective teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary schools.