EFFECTS OF COLLABORATIVE AND META COGNITIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN DOMA, NASSARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The Persistent drop in achievement of students in Social Studies is a matter of concern to 
stakeholders in education over the years concerted effort has been made to improve the 
achievement of students in Social Studies. The present study investigated the effects of 
collaborative technique and metacognitive on academic achievement of students’ social skills 
in Social Studies in Doma, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study was guided by 3 research 
questions and 1 hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study used the quasi
experimental research design. Specifically, the Non-equivalent pretest-posttest group design 
which involved two groups. The population of the study consisted of 1887 students in all public 
secondary schools in Doma, Nasarawa State. Simple random sampling technique was used to 
select the two schools used for the study while intact classes were used in each school selected. 
Two instruments were used for data collection which were titled Social Studies Achievement 
Test (SSAT) and students’ social skills Attitude towards Social Studies Questionnaires 
(SSSASST). The validity of SSAT and SSSASST were established using a test blue print and 
judgment of experts from Research Measurement and Evaluation as well as experts from Social 
Studies education units. The reliability of SSAT and SSSASST was ascertained through test
retest method and the scores subjected to test retest method and the coefficient 0.83 was 
obtained. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of mean and 
standard devaition while the hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics of ANCOVA 
and t-test at 0.5 level of significance. The study revealed That the groups were equivalent based 
on the mean score obtained at the pre-test level (Expr=Crtl). However, after the intervention 
the result shows that the experimental group performed higher than the control group and even 
higher than their pretest scores obtained in the study (42.59≥40.32). Hence it can be deduced 
that collaborative technique enhances students’ achievement. It was found out that the 
experimental group performed higher after the intervention than the control group. It was 
concluded in this study that that collaborative learning strategy is an effective teaching method 
in Social Studies since the findings of this study confirms that it leads to social skills 
development and improved academic achievement of students. The study recommended 
among others that Social Studies teachers should endeavor to develop and adopt collaborative 
and metacognitive techniques as it would enhance overall social skills development and 
achievement of students in Social Studies as well as help reduce gender gap in Social Studies.