ABSTACT
This research work titled effect of meta-cognitive instructional strategy on students’ achievement, interest and retention in secondary school Economics in Asaba Education Zone of Delta State, Nigeria aimed at determining the effect of meta-cognitive instructional strategy on students’ achievement, interest and retention in secondary school Economics in Asaba Education Zone of Delta State, Nigeria. It also aimed at determining the effect of the strategy on students’ achievement, interest and retention relative to gender and school location, all with a view to finding solution to the perennial poor students’ achievement in secondary school Economics caused by extensive use of conventional (expository) instructional strategy in teaching economics. The design of the study is quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group research design, involving two intact groups of one experimental group and one control group. Nine research questions and nine hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The area of the study was Asaba Education Zone of Delta state of Nigeria. The population of the study was two thousand; eight hundred and thirty two students (2,832) of senior secondary school class 2 (SSS 2) students of Economics. The study adopted purposive sampling technique to select six schools from 42 co-education secondary schools in the area. The sample size was 341 students made up of 99 male and 89 female students in urban schools and 85 male and 68 female students in rural schools based on the number of students in intact classes in the sampled schools. Simple random sampling was used for assigning the sampled schools to control and experimental groups. Different lesson plans were prepared and used for the two strategies, that is, lesson plan for meta-cognitive instructional strategy and lesson plan for expository instructional strategy. Three instruments, Economics Achievement Test (EAT), Economics Interest Inventory (EII) and Economics Retention Test (ERT) were used for data collection. The EAT and EII were used for both pre test and post tests while ERT was used two weeks after the post test. EAT and ERT are 48-item multiple choice objective test questions covering four difficult Economics concepts namely; price determination, elasticity of demand, and elasticity of supply and price legislation. The EII was Likert-type four-point scale comprising of 30 items covering students’ interest in Economics. The instruments and lesson plans were validated and trial tested before use. By means of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer application, the research questions were answered using means and standard deviations. The ordinal data of interest inventory were exported to Microsoft excel from SPSS in order to sum up the scores of each respondent and thereafter imported back into SPSS data as scale data for the analysis. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) technique was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 levels of significance. The major findings are that there are statistically significant difference in achievement, interest and retention of students in Economics when exposed to treatment. Meta-cognitive instructional strategy proved efficacious in enhancing students’ achievement, interest and retention in Economics more than conventional (expository) instructional strategy. There are no statically significant difference in male and female students’ achievement, interest and retention in Economics who are taught using meta-cognitive instructional strategy. Also, the achievement interest and retention of students in urban and rural schools who are taught using meta-cognitive instructional strategy are not significant. The researcher therefore, recommended thatmeta-cognitive instructional strategy should used in teaching Economics in secondary schools irrespective of gender and school location. The researcher recommended seminars; workshop and conferences to be organized for teachers to enable them learn how to make best use of meta-cognitive instructional strategy to teach difficult Economics concepts and topics.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study
Globalization is affecting every area of human
endeavor all over the world. As a result, there is a very high demand for
improvement in nearly every aspect of human life. This demand has mounted serious pressures on
all that are concerned all over the world for improvement and development. No
nation or any of its component or institution wants to be left out. The
economy, politics, socialization and education of the world are individually
affected by globalization. School subjects including Economics and the modes of
instruction are also affected.
Economics
curriculum is particularly affected by these changes. The curriculum content is
no longer as scanty, without mathematical and statistical contents, as it used
to be from the inception till about a decade ago. Then virtually every
candidate can pass it at credit level without difficulty at the school
certificate and general certificate examinations. Nigerian
Educational Research and Development Council (2008) thus confirm that “the
21st century has witnessed landmark economic reforms and
strategisation globally. In Nigeria, the last decade has also witnessed
unprecedented economic reforms that have
influenced different sectors of the economy. These reforms have ushered
different concepts, models and theories not only into Economics but also into
other disciplines. There is therefore need to make the post-basic Economics
curriculum responsive to make it relevant to Nigeria’s quest to be among the
top 20 players of the world economy come 2020. Development of the human capital
and the entire country is the hall mark of new Economics curriculum”.
“Curriculum can be taken to mean the instruments by means of which schools seek
to translate the hopes of the society into concrete reality” (Onwuka, 2002:7). Curriculum, according to Great
Schools Partnership (2014),is “the knowledge and skills students are expected
to learn, which includes learning standard or learning objectives they are
expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments …
materials …tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning”.
Economics was introduced in
secondary schools curriculum in Nigeria in 1966 and the students were first
examined in 1967 after much controversy which led to the realization that
Economics was necessary for every citizen to have the knowledge of economic
system and how the economy works. It was generally believed that only those who
studied Economics had all the answer to all the problems of the country. Economics was recognized as a vehicle of
strict intellectual discipline. Economic is a course of study that is taught in
secondary schools, college of education, polytechnics and Universities. It is
central to the study of management and social science courses in the country’s
tertiary institutions. Without a credit pass in it in ordinary level certificate
examinations, most tertiary institutions will not offer admission to the
candidates to study management and certain social science courses. It is a
social science that is concerned with optimum allocation and utilization of
resource to satisfy the wants of consumers, firms and the economy at large. It
aims at maximizing returns such as utility, profit, welfare, personal income,
firms’ out-put et cetera, at the micro level; and potential out-put, full employment level
while keeping inflation low, equilibrium level of income and so on, at the
macro level. It is a vehicle for rapid economic development, self reliance,
economic /financial welfare and national economic self reliant. It governs the
government economic policies and policy implementation, and it is a tool for
regulating the economy. Economics is a course that cut across every sector of
the economy and if Nigeria is going to achieve the current economic development
plans: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and vision 20: 2020 and any short,
medium or long term economic plan, the teaching of economic theories, concepts
and policies effectively in schools must be an imperative.
Without effective instructional
delivery of Economics, nations will, without doubt, remain impoverished. This
is because there must, for instance, be technological and economical efficiency
in the use of both human and material resource in Nigeria to maximize output
and minimize costs for firms, maximize satisfaction for consumers and welfare
for governments, leading to increased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which
in-turn leads to increase in standard of living. There is also the need to
stabilize the economy through effective trade, monetary and fiscal policies in
order to maintain stable exchange rate, favourable terms and balance of payment
as well as to reduce unemployment, control inflation and to tackle the problem
of stagflation which currently ravaging the economy.
Unfortunately, many students fail
Economics in senior secondary school certificate examinations organized by West
African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO). In
fact, the poor academic achievement, retention and interest of senior secondary
school students in Economics is alarming since the enrichment of the curriculum
with many more contents including those that are mathematical and statistical
in nature. Difficult Concepts and Topics in Economics/ Social Science Education
511 (SSE 511) students of School of Post Graduate Studies, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, carried out a survey assignment in Enugu state of Nigeria on
difficult concepts and topics in secondary school Economics and find out that
many students and teachers perceive many concepts and topics in Economics
difficult and that students’ dispositions about the subject have changed from
what they used to be. According to them, the students claimed that the topics
are too many, some of them are very difficult and that some are strange
(Difficult Concepts in Economics [SSE 511] Students, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
16th February, 2015; personal communication). Using percentage for
data analysis and 50% as base line for topics not preferred by the students to
be set in senior secondary school certificate examination, if they were asked
to choose, SSE 511 students discovered that the concepts and topics not
preferred because they are perceived difficult include price determination; elasticity
of demand and supply; types of demand and supply; problems involving graphical
illustration; nature of Nigeria economy; mining; instruments for business
finance; theory of consumer behavior; basic tools for economic analysis; fiscal
policy; element of national income accounting; human capital development;
economic lessons from Asian Tigers, Japan, Europe and America; Economic reform
programme; current economic plans and economic development challenges amongst
others.
Researchers have found out that the
causes of students’ poor achievement, interest and retention in Economics are
traceable to poor teaching methods, the difficult nature of some Economics
concepts and topics, negative attitudes of students towards Economics, gender
factors, school locations and teachers/students inability to cover their
syllabus before they take their final examinations in Economics (Okwor &
Nwaosu, 2011& WAEC chief examiner’s report, 2007).
It
has been observed that the use of expository teaching strategy which seemed to
be successful due to the scanty Economics curriculum content as at then is no
longer effective in teaching and learning Economics in secondary schools since
the enrichment of the curriculum with new concepts, models and theories. Ossai
(2014:153) stated that “instructional strategy otherwise known as teaching
method can be conceived of as a plan of activities to teach content and
sequence learning experience”. Meziobi,
Fubara and Meziobi (2008) stated that “teaching strategies are the umbrella
term, in fact an overall large scale teaching plan or framework, that
encapsulate both teaching methods and teaching techniques.” Therefore, instructional strategy includes
the method and the techniques used in and outside the classroom by the teacher
and learners in order to achieve the planned learning outcome.
It has been observed that teachers
in Nigeria predominantly use expository instructional strategy for content
delivery in various subjects (including Economics). In order to cover the
scheme of work, teachers resort to transmission of facts, dogmas and theories
to the students who have to regurgitate them in half digested form in
examination. Oduolowu (2007) observed that “among other outdated instructional
techniques, rote learning which focuses on memorization and regurgitation of
facts is still used by teachers in the country (including those in Asaba
Educational Zone in Delta State) p. 15. Conventional instructional method of
‘talk and chalk’ is grossly inadequate for teaching a problem- solving approach
discipline such as Economics. The
prevalent uses of traditional teaching method in teaching Economics do not allow
the students to have in-depth knowledge of Economics concepts which also
adversely affects retention and interest. This ugly development hinders the
critical thinking skill that Economics develops in the learners and can make
the topics difficult to the students. In
order to achieve instructional objectives and education goals, students are
expected to excel in the academic work, experience comfortable academic
environment and provision of necessary infrastructural facilities while
“Gbanaja” according to Ossai, (2014), “pointed out that the method adopted by
any teacher in teaching any particular subject can affect learner’s level of
achievement”. There is therefore, the
need to employ appropriate instructional strategy that can enhance students’
achievements, interests and retention in Economics irrespective of their gender
groups and their school locations.
Knowledge construction requires
higher cognitive ability on the part of the learner to enable him/her become
conscious of himself as a learner, his
level of knowledge, his learning ability, the learning task needed to be
performed, what is needed to be learnt
from the curriculum content, be able to adjust
his/her previous knowledge and use it meaningfully to restructure the
new knowledge in the best way he/she can easily make meaning out of it whether
in the classroom, in group interactions and in personal studies. The
instructional strategies currently adopted by teachers neglected and overlooked
these potentials at the various phases of Economics curriculum. However, the
meta-cognitive instructional strategy variously referred to as
memory-monitoring and self regulation, meta-reasoning, meta-cognition,
meta-awareness and auto-consciousness can help students to improve their
achievement, interest and retention in Economics.
Various scholars gave various
definitions of meta-cognition. Being aware of what you know and don’t know,
understanding what you will need to know for a certain task and having an idea
of how to use your current skill to learn what you don’t know is an aspect of
meta-cognition. This is the aspect of
meta-cognition referred to as meta-cognitive knowledge or meta-cognitive
awareness which is made up of personal knowledge, task knowledge and strategic
knowledge. Meta-cognition is defined by some scholars as the process of
thinking about thinking and reflecting on ones thinking and seems to be a big
predictor of success: academically, socially and professionally. In this
definition, meta-cognitive awareness and meta-cognitive regulation are implied,
though there is the third stage or class of meta-cognition referred to as
meta-cognitive experience which has to do with the drive or the motive that
propels active learning of perceived difficult task. Chick (2015) defined meta-cognition
as the process used to plan, monitor and assess ones understanding and
performances and includes ones thinking and learning and oneself as a thinker
and learner. In Chick’s definition, the process of planning, monitoring and
assessing ones understanding and performances talks about the three steps in
meta-cognitive strategy or meta-cognitive regulation while the reference of
oneself as a thinker and a learner has to do with meta-cognitive awareness all
of which may not be developed in learners except through instruction. Any one that acquired meta-cognitive
abilities has acquired the knowledge, skills, and values that govern, control
and regulate the learning of other knowledge, skills and value. This means that
meta-cognition has in it, the driving force behind acquisition of knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values. It affects the three domains of educational
objectives in which retention, achievement and interest lie. The more meta-cognitive
one is, the more one would be able to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. It will help learners to choose the right cognitive
tool for task and plays critical roles in active and successful learning.
Cognition on its own is a term that
refers to the thinking process of an individual. These processes include
attention, perception, memory knowledge representation, language problem
solving, reasoning and decision making (Kolleg, 2007; Marzonu & Kendall,
2007). Constructing understanding requires cognitive and meta-cognitive
elements; learners “construct knowledge” using cognitive strategies, and they
guide, regulate, and evaluate their learning using meta-cognitive strategies.
It is through this “thinking about thinking” that real learning occurs. As
students become more skilled at using meta-cognitive strategies, they would
gain confidence and become more independent learners. Meta-cognition therefore,
means learning how to learn. It is one’s ability to identify learning tasks,
set learning goals, identify ones strength and weakness as a learner, use one’s
prior strategic knowledge to plan a strategy for approaching learning task, take necessary steps to solve
problems, monitor ones cognition, reflect on and evaluate results; and modify
ones approach when necessary.
There are three classifications of
meta-cognition. They are meta-cognitive knowledge or meta-cognitive awareness,
meta-cognitive regulation or self regulation and meta-cognitive experience.
Each of these can be taught and/or modeled in the teaching and learning
process. Meta-cognitive regulation is the aspect that is referred to as the
meta-cognitive strategy which can be used during content delivery of any
discipline. Research has shown that “meta-cognitive skills can be taught to
students to improve their learning” (Anderson & Therriault, 2003). Meta-cognitive strategy can be thought
alongside with certain teaching or cognitive strategy by slightly adjusting the
teaching techniques to accommodate the meta-cognitive elements. It involves the
processes of teaching the students that they can affect how their ability to
learn develops; teaching them how to set learning goals and plan to meet them;
monitor their own learning and adapting when necessary; and evaluate their
thinking process after completing the task and instruction. The teacher can
model application of questions, think-aloud, read-aloud, jump start journal,
lecture wrapper, the use of graphic organizers and mnemonics appropriately
during the planning, monitoring and evaluation stages of meta-cognitive
regulation.
High achievement is usually
enhanced by appropriate instructional strategy. Achievement is the outcome of
measuring the effects of relatively standardized sets of cognitive experience
on a learner or group of learners. The higher the desired effect it has, the
higher the achievement. Retaining cognitive experience over a long period of
time may lead to a higher achievement. Retention is maintaining the
availability of newly acquired information, experience or new meaning or some
part of them. It is the ability to recall or to recognize what has been learnt
or experienced over a long period of time.
Cope (2011) observed that active participation during instruction
increases learning and retention. Retention in Economics is not be acquired by
mere transmission of facts and dogma but through the application of appropriate
instructional delivery strategy.
Agbo, Anorue & Asogwa (2008)
identified that “the causes of difficulties in students’ learning of Economics
include poor attitude of students towards the subject”. This means that the
level of students’ interest in Economics is ebbing. Interest of the learners in
Economics can be described as great attention or concern of the learners for
Economics; an intellectual curiosity about the subject of Economics. It could
be aroused by activity that tends to satisfy the needs of the learners. If
teachers could engage the students in activities that tend to satisfy their
students’ needs by applying the appropriate instructional strategies in
teaching difficult concepts and topics in Economics, students’ interest in the
subject will be kindled.
Gender
as a variable could interact with students’ achievement, interest and retention. In other words some instructional strategies
could be gender sensitive when it comes to students’ achievement, interest and
retention. “Gender relates to the
difference in sex (that is, either male or female) and how this quality affects
their dispositions towards academic activities” (Okoh, 2007). With some
instructional strategies and in some disciplines, girls may perform achieve poorer
or better than boys. Nzewi (2010) noted that “females are grossly
under-represented and many of them are noted to underachieve in science and
technology”. According to Ibe (2004), education that will equip the
individual with the power to adapt to change irrespective of gender should be
the most important goal of education of any society that wants to progress.
Another
observed variable that could influence students’ achievements, interest and
retention in Economics is school location. Location is a particular point or
place in physical space. School location, therefore, is a particular place
where a particular school or schools are physically situated. According to
Ezeja, Ezeora and Ezugu (2008), “school location for a quite number of times
can serve as a contributing factor that influences academic performance and
interest of students”. The achievements of the students in schools located in
rural areas and that of those in schools located in urban areas could vary
according to their locations.
Since
the instructional methods persistently used in teaching Economics cannot help
effectively in teaching the difficult Economics concepts, which manifests in
perennial poor students’ achievement, interest and retention, the researcher
deemed it necessary to study the effects of meta-cognitive instructional
strategy on senior secondary school students’ achievement, interest and
retention in Economics. As an additional advantage, meta-cognitive experience,
an aspect of meta-cognition, has been identified to be responsible for creating
identity that matters to an individual. In this sense, identity has to do with
goal, aspiration and ambition. Identity provides a basis for meaning making for
action and that learners experiencing difficulty in learning, as a result of
being exposed to meta-cognitive experience apply the incremental theory of
ability which states that if efforts matters, then difficulty is likely to be
interpreted as meaning that more effort is needed so as to continue to identify
with the identity (Oyesermen & Destin, 2010). Moreover, “Meta-cognitive activities can guide students
as they identify what they already know, articulate what they learned,
communicate their knowledge, skills and abilities to a specific audience, set
goals and monitor their progress; and evaluate and reverse their own work”
(DePaul, 2014). Considering these qualities amongst others, it might not be out
of place to investigate the effects of meta-cognitive instructional strategies
on secondary school students’ interest, achievement and retention in Economics
in Asaba Education Zone, Delta State.
Statement
of the Problem
Poor students’ achievements, interest and retention in
Economics are alarming, despite the fact that many research has been carried
out to remedy the situation. Instead of adopting result oriented teaching and
learning strategy that will engage the students in critical thinking learning
processes which in turn is capable of producing easy transfer of learning and
progressive positive learning outcomes, the teachers are still using outdated instructional
strategy.
Onyeguke, Udah & Onyekaba
(2006) and Banunwa & Okeke (2010) strongly believe that instructional
approaches used by the teachers contribute to the difficulties encountered by
the students in comprehending certain concepts and topics in Economics and
their inability to cover the scheme of work before they sit for certificate
examinations, resulting to Poor academic achievements and interest in
Economics. It was observed from the data collected from WAEC result sheets of
five randomly selected schools from the area of study that in 2009/2010 session
that 12% of the students scored F9; 36%: E8 – D7; 52% got C6-C4 and 0% got
B3-A1. In 2010/2011 session, 24% scored F9, 50% scored E8-D7, 26% scored C6-C4
and 0% scored B3-A1. In 2011/2012 session 31% scored F9, 33% scored E8-D7, 36%
scored C6-C4 and 0% scored B3-A1. In 2013/2014 80% of the students got F9, 20%
got E8 and D7, 0% got C6-C4 and 0% got from B3-A1. From the above analysis, the
students that got C6-C4 are below 37% of the students that took the examination
each year except in 2009/2010 when 52% of them got between C6-C4. This trend is
not encouraging at all.
The expository instructional
strategy used in teaching Economics lacks the required critical thinking
potentiality for active and effective learning of difficult concepts and topics
in Economics. It does not encourage retention of facts nor does it promote
students interest in the subject matter. It has little or nothing to offer the
students individually or collectively in terms of creating meta-cognitive
awareness, meta-cognitive regulation and meta-cognitive experience. It cannot
instill the confidence and awareness on the students that they are active
learners that can develop their learning ability through planning, monitoring
and evaluating their own learning. All
these potentials that are absent in expository instructional strategy could
they be inherent in meta-cognitive strategy? Unfortunately the effects of
meta-cognitive instructional strategy on students’ achievement, interest and
retention is not certain. This work is, therefore, intended to investigate the
effects of meta-cognitive instructional strategy on students’ achievement,
interest and retention in secondary school Economics in Asaba Education Zone,
Delta State.
In more specific terms, the
problems of this study are: what are the effects of meta-cognitive
instructional strategy on students’ achievement, retention and interest in
Economics? What are the interaction effects of the instructional strategy and
gender on students’ achievement, retention and interest in Economics? What are
the interaction effects of the instructional strategy and school location on
students’ achievement, retention and interest in Economics?
Significance
of the Study
This study investigated the “effect
of meta-cognitive instructional strategy on students’ achievement, interest and
retention in secondary school Economics in Asaba Education Zone of Delta State,
Nigeria. Economics topics are abstract and mathematical in nature and some of
them are very difficult to understand, efforts to teach them using expository
instructional strategy proved abortive. So, teaching Economics will require
higher cognitive ability which involves meta-cognition. Theoretically, the
result of this study will enable the teachers and the students to understand
that the ability to learn is not a fixed quantity and that they can develop
such ability over time as the strategy combines cognition and learning how to
learn. It will enable the Economics teachers and students to assess their
current knowledge of any give task, plan their learning, set realistic learning
goals, determine the appropriate learning strategy, monitor the strategy and the
instruction, orchestrate the various learning strategy and evaluate both the
strategy and the learning. These will keep both the teacher and the learner
focused on the instructional objective and as they do these, in class, groups
or pairs, their learning abilities will improve which will lead to higher
academic achievement in Economics.
The result of this work will
sensitize Economics teachers to use effective instructional strategy for
improved students’ understanding, achievement, retention and interest in
Economics in secondary schools and other institutions of learning. It will
enable Economics teachers to use the appropriate instructional strategy in
teaching students in different school locations and in teaching different sex
groups of students. The strategy can also be adapted to teach other related
subject areas at all levels of education, mostly those subjects that the topics
and concepts are abstract and mathematical in nature. This is possible, because
the strategy under investigation has additional advantage of enabling students
to set realistic learning goals, monitor their learning process and evaluate
their learning strategies as well as encourages deductive and inductive
reasoning. These skills are acquired in the class through regular explicit
modeling of meta-cognitive strategy by the teacher during the content delivery
until the students become used to it to the extent that they can use the
strategy to tackle assignments and prepare for examinations even when the
teacher is not there. The result of this
investigation will contribute tremendously in helping the students develop
their appropriate learning strategy to overcoming their learning difficulties,
master difficult concepts in Economics, cover their scheme of work and pass
their examinations in Economics with good grades.
The
results of this study will also be of immense benefit to parents, tertiary
education institutions, employers of labour, government, curriculum planners,
educationists, researchers and the general public. Applying the result of the findings of this
study will prove the subject relevant to the learners (students); resulting in
their ability to transfer learning to everyday life, improve student
performances in Economics examinations and save the parents extra cost of
training their children in schools because they will not need to pay extra fees
for repetitions and re-enrollment of their wards to re-take examinations. It
will also reduce the incidence of drop-outs and frustrations that accompany
learning difficulties, high cost of schooling encountered by parents and
students and poor students’ academic achievement.
It will ensure quality Economics
manpower supply in the labour market as well as quality Economics candidates
for admission into social science education, social science and management
courses in the university and other tertiary institutions of learning, which
will in turn boost national wealth and development. It will also
The researcher also hopes that the
findings will serve as a stepping-stone for f
