ABSTRACTS

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of training in reciprocal peer tutoring strategy on achievement, interest and perceived self-efficacy in reading comprehension of senior secondary school students. The influence of gender and gender groupings on the achievement, interest and self-efficacy of students were explored. The effect of interaction of reciprocal peer tutoring strategy and gender on achievement, interest and self-efficacy was also examined. Four research questions were generated and four null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study was a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design, involving one treatment and one control group. A total of 174 senior secondary class two students from four co-educational senior secondary schools in Obollo Afor Education Zone made up the sample for the study. In each school, one intact class was randomly selected and the intact classes were also randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. Three instruments namely: Test of Comprehension (TOC) forms I and II, Students’ Reading Comprehension Interest Rating Scale, Students’ Self-efficacy Rating Scale and two training programmes namely: Reciprocal Peer Tutoring Strategy Lesson Plan and Conventional Lesson Plan, were developed,  by the researcher .  The reciprocal peer tutoring strategy lesson plan was used for the experimental group while the control group received training using the conventional teaching method. The data obtained were analyzed using mean scores, standard deviation and 2 x 2 analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The major findings of the study were that intervention using reciprocal peer tutoring strategy significantly improved the achievement, interest and perceived self-efficacy in reading comprehension of senior secondary school students; that gender had no significant influence on the achievement, interest and self-efficacy in reading comprehension of students based on the reciprocal peer tutoring strategy; that gender grouping was not a significant factor in the achievement, interest and self-efficacy of students in reading comprehension; that the interaction effect of reciprocal peer tutoring strategy and gender on achievement, interest and self-efficacy in reading comprehension of students was not significant. A major educational implication of the findings was that training in reciprocal peer tutoring strategy improves achievement, interest and self-efficacy in reading comprehension and this suggests that teachers would achieve better results if trained on how to use RPT strategy. It was thus recommended that emphasis should be given to equipping students with the relevant skills in using reciprocal peer tutoring strategy and that teacher preparation institutions should incorporate RPT strategy in the relevant areas of the curriculum units and expose both the pre-service and in-service teachers to this strategy learning.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Reading comprehension is very important in the life of any learner. It helps in promoting higher academic achievement. Reading for comprehension helps students to construct meaning from texts, as well as to examine and extend the meaning of the text (Presley, 2006). Reading, essentially involves the process of encoding and processing information by relating incoming information to the already stored information or ideas. It is an attempt at understanding a text that is read, or the process of constructing meaning from a text. Presley concluded that reading for comprehension is not something that happens after reading; it is the thinking done before, during and after reading.

The need to read for comprehension permeates all the school subjects in the social sciences, humanities and the sciences. For students therefore, reading for comprehension is not just for pleasure but to be able to understand information for proper adjustment in the environment (Onuigbo, 2008).

Success in school requires that learners read for comprehension. However, evidence abounds of poor academic achievement among all categories of students in Nigeria and Obollo Afor Education Zone in particular. This situation has continued to create concerns in the minds of teachers, parents, curriculum experts and evaluators (Ene, 2002). The trend of poor achievement in different school subjects has been confirmed by the recent West African Examinations Councils’ (WAEC) Chief Examiners’ Reports for the years 2000 to 2008.. These reports show that students’ achievements were poor in many of the subjects. For instance, in the Resume of Chief Examiners’ Report for Nigeria (2002), it was reported that the candidates in the May/June West African Senior School Certificate examination achieved poorly in English Language, French, Igbo Language, Literature-in-English Language, Christian Religious Knowledge, Financial Accounting, Typewriting, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, General Mathematics, Auto-Mechanics, Metalwork 2, Woodwork 2, Technical Drawing 2.

In the WAEC Chief Examiners’ (2004) report, it was reported that “candidates’ achievements were poor in English Language, French, Literature-in-English 2, Geography 1B, Geography 2, Visual Art 3, Financial Accounting 2, Typewriting, Agricultural Science 1, Agricultural Science 2, Biology 1, Biology 2, Chemistry 1, Mathematics 2 and Woodworks 3” (p1). The same trend continued in the WAEC Chief Examiners’ reports for 2005 where candidates’ poor achievements were reported in Literature-in-English, Agricultural Science 2, Home Management 2, Foods and Nutrition 2, and Woodwork 2 (WAEC, 2005).

 The weaknesses of the candidates were traced to inability to read, comprehend and answer the questions correctly. These made candidates to provide answers that were wrong. The problem was more obvious in comprehension and summary exercises in English Language where they were required to read and draw inferences since the answers were not given. The reports have it that candidates lost a lot of marks as a result of lifting “seeming answers” from the passage, and that many candidates were yet to come to grips with the skills of comprehension (WAEC, 2005: 86). Out of a total number of 252, 343 students who sat for the English Language in 2001 May/June Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, about thirty five percent (35%) of the candidates had credits. Thirty four percent (34%) failed woefully and thirty one percent (31%) had ordinary passes. The results of the West African Examinations Councils (WAEC) of November 2006 examinations were, to say the least, disheartening. They indicated that only 48, 966 candidates, representing 11.6% of  the 423, 518 candidates who sat for the examinations obtained five credits including Mathematics and English Language, which is the basic requirement for admission into Nigerian Universities. Out of the successful number, 25,144 were science oriented, 4,846 were social science oriented while 18,976 were Arts candidates. Another 19,511 candidates, representing 4.63% of the total candidates, also obtained five credits without the required Mathematics and English Language. This precludes them from admission into most Nigerian Universities.

These figures of poor achievement in the November 2006 WASC examinations represent a further drop from the achievement of candidates in the May/June 2006 version of the examination. In that examination 15 percent of 1,184, 384 candidates who sat for the examination passed well enough to obtain university admission. Only 177, 800 candidates obtained credits in English and Mathematics. These uninspiring achievements in the SSCE examinations are causes for concern. All these go to a large extent to reveal that reading for comprehension is a major problem that should be addressed

A number of conferences and workshops have been organized with a view to addressing the problem of reading comprehension in secondary schools (Ene, 2002). As a result, a number of strategies have been recommended for teaching so that students can comprehend what they read. These include: Guided teaching method (Dagoli, 1999); Use of games (Umoh, 2001); Cloze Instructional Approach (Ene, 2002); Ethnomathematics Approach (Kurumeh, 2004); English for Academic Purpose – EAP (Oluikpe, 2004); Enquiry-Discovery method (Ekpo, 2006); Use of ICT in the classroom (Olorundare, 2006). All these recommended approaches look quite interesting in their theoretical orientation, but evidence shows that the problems are still prevalent, as could be seen from the WAEC (2000 -2008) Chief Examiners’ reports.

Evidence emanating from Western Europe tends to suggest that reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) has the potential of helping students to understand what they read. According to Esteve (2005), reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) could be defined as a learning situation where students take turns acting as the tutors and the tutees for instruction or review of academic material. In this case, students exchange roles during tutoring session, both giving and receiving academic assistance while the teacher supervises rather than participate in the intervention. The students dialogue among themselves as each learner acts in response to another. The dialogue is usually structured by the use of four strategies, sometimes known as the Fabulous Four (Oczkus, 2003), which are predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. The goal of reciprocal peer tutoring is to use discussion to enhance students’ reading comprehension, develop self-regulatory and monitoring skills, and achieve overall improvement in motivation (Allen, 2003).

Pigott, Fantuzzo, Heggie and Clement, (1984) developed and tested reciprocal peer tutoring for children with academic needs. In this procedure, students are assembled in groups of two or more and are trained to work together to prompt, monitor and evaluate each other, while working toward group goals. The students alternate between the roles of tutor and tutee in groups. Students work together in the groups to achieve established goals or rewards that are contingent upon group achievement. RPT requires that the students earn points for correctly responding to academic task. RPT requires each member of the group to contribute to the attainment of the goal, and ensures that no one person can be responsible for the group success (Esteve 2005).

Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) is based on Vygotsky’s (1978) social cognitive theory which emphasizes the role of social interaction (dialogue) in the development of cognition. Vygotsky believed that thinking aloud and discussion of thoughts aid clarification and revision of thinking and learning. Vygotsky’s theory of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is believed to be critical in identifying appropriate text and scaffolding activities to support student success (Gallowey, 2001). Vygotsky (1978: 86) explained ZPD to mean “…the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”.

Though reciprocal peer tutoring has some research evidence in support of its potential effectiveness in some western countries (Fantuzzo, King & Heller, 1992; Malome & McLanghlm, 1997; Fisher, 2001; Allen, 2003; Oczkus, 2003; Esteve, 2005), little studies seem to be available here in Nigeria. Therefore, it is important that this strategy be tried out in Obollo Afor Education Zone to determine the extent of its effectiveness in improving the reading comprehension achievement of secondary school students.      

In adopting reciprocal peer tutoring as an instructional strategy, other observed factors that can influence the students’ participation in the tutor/tutee procedure such as interest, perceived self-efficacy and gender need to be addressed. Interest as viewed by Nekang (2004) is an emotionally oriented behaviour trait, which determines students’ energy and enthusiasm in tackling educational programmes or other activities. Okoye (1998) looked at interest as a kind of feeling which one has for something which is valuable and beneficial. Harbor-Peters (2002) also defined interest as:

subjective feeling of intentness or curiosity over something. The interest in a particular thing is a feeling manifested in an activity. Interest is a tendency to become absorbed in an experience and to continue in it. It is the zeal or willingness to participate in an activity from which one derives some pleasure (p. 34).

Interest is therefore a necessary ingredient before learning can take place; for a child is bound to pay attention as a lesson goes on if such a child is interested in the particular subject.

However, studies carried out in Nigeria have revealed high failure rate and relatively small proportion of students’ interest in subjects that require reading for comprehension (Ezugwu & Agwagah 2000; Harbor-Peters 2002). Students could be more comfortable when they interact with peers than when they are threatened by the presence of a teacher or an adult. Working alone with peers may generate interest among students, therefore, it is important to determine the extent RPT can affect students’ interest in reading for comprehension since it is learner centered.

Research studies have indicated that self-efficacy is an important factor in school achievement (Friedman, 1998). Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of achievement that exercise influence over events that affect their lives (Bandura, 1997). Perceived self-efficacy can operationally be looked at as people’s beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives. Beliefs in personal efficacy affect life choices, level of motivation, quality of functioning, resilience to adversity and vulnerability to stress and depression. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Schunk and Zimmerman (1997) maintained that compared with students who doubt their learning capabilities, those who have a sense of efficacy for particular tasks participate more readily, work harder, persist longer when they encounter difficulties, and achieve at a higher level. Students are reluctant to engage in activities they believe will lead to negative outcomes. This may explain why some students drop out of school and even when they remain in school, they avoid examinations, since they believe that they cannot make good grades. It is therefore important to determine the extent RPT can enhance the self-efficacy beliefs of secondary school students and success in school academic activities. According to Bandura (2000), if students have experienced success in a domain, they are likely to have higher self-efficacy in that domain.

Another area that has been of interest to researchers is the issue of gender on reading achievement of students. While some research studies showed evidence of girls’ superiority over boys in reading (Viadero, 1998; Umoh, 2001; Coley 2001 & Newkirt cited in Onuigbo, 2008), some studies reported that boys achieved better (Okeke, 1990 & Harbor-Peters, 1990). Following these inconsistencies, this work seeks to contribute in resolving this controversy on gender as it affects reading comprehension achievement. The finding of the study may reveal which gender achieves better. In addition, the study would go further to compare the different gender groupings and their effect on students’ reading achievement, interest and self-efficacy in reading comprehension. The tacit assumption in Obollo Afor Education Zone is that males are superior to females in everything that counts (Ugwu, 2006). Since reciprocal peer tutoring involves leading in turn, one wonders whether the socio-cultural influences that expose males to different problem solving situations and place females in a subordinate position would affect the achievement of the different gender groups involved in the RPT. Therefore, the study examined how different gender groupings: males only group, females only group and mixed gender groupings would affect their reading achievement, interest and self-efficacy based on RPT instruction. These were the driving forces that motivated this study.

Statement of the Problem          

Reading for comprehension has been indicated to be very important in the life of any student. It is important in academic achievement as it helps students to construct meaning from texts as well as to examine and extend the meaning of the text. Yet the prevailing problem in Nigeria is that the achievement of students in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations has been declining steadily. Teachers, parents, curriculum experts and evaluators are worried, especially when the poor achievement has been blamed on inadequate reading comprehension skills. It is believed that if the reading comprehension achievement of students in the SSSCE remains like this, it will affect both the economic and technological growth of Nigeria. Evidence emanating from Western countries tends to suggest that reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) has the potential for helping to initiate and sustain the interest of students and promote their self-efficacy belief and consequently improve their reading comprehension achievement. How RPT would affect the achievement, interest and self-efficacy belief in reading comprehension of Nigerian students who operate in a different socio-cultural environment is yet to be determined.

Therefore, the problem of this study put in a question form is: how would reciprocal peer tutoring affect the achievement, interest and self-efficacy in reading comprehension of Senior Secondary School class II students?

Purpose of the Study  

The purpose of the study was to explore empirically the effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on the achievement, interest and perceived self-efficacy of senior secondary school students in reading comprehension.

This study specifically sought to:

1. Determine the differential effect of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) and conventional teaching strategies on (a) achievement (b) interest and (c) self-efficacy in reading comprehension of senior secondary students.
2. Find out the influence of gender on (a) achievement (b) interest and (c) self-efficacy in reading comprehension of students based on RPT strategy.
3. Determine the effect of different gender groupings on (a) achievement, (b) interest and (c) self-efficacy in reading comprehension of students.
4.  Find out the interaction effect of RPT strategy and gender on the (a) achievement (b) interest and (c) self-efficacy in reading comprehension of students.