EFFECTS OF RECIPROCAL TO PEER TUTORING STRATEGY ON ECONOMICS STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN GINDIRI, MANGU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

Abstract

This study aimed at analysing the effect of reciprocal to-peer tutoring strategy on economics students' achievement in public secondary schools in Gindiri, Mangu Local Government area of Plateau State. three research objectives and three research questions were raised for the study and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design specifically, a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. The population of the study consisted of all the 685 Senior Secondary Year Two economics students in the 22 Secondary schools in the area. The sample consisted of 88 students drawn from two co-educational secondary schools out of the 22 co educational secondary schools in Gindiri, Mangu L.G.A. One of the schools was randomly assigned to the experimental group while the other was assigned to the control group. The Economics Achievement Test (EAT) was the instrument used to collect data for the study. The EAT of 25 items was trial tested on an intact class of 30 students outside the study area. The reliability coefficient of EAT was established to be 0.72 using Kuder Richardson (KR-20) while the reliabilitycoefficient was established to be 0.78 using Cronbach alpha. The EAT was administered to the students as a pretest and posttest for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the t-test of independent sample was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that the mean score of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group. It was concluded that reciprocal to-peer tutoring enhanced the academic achievement of students in the experimental group significantly as compared to the control group; hence, the implication of the study is that reciprocal peer tutoring is effective method of instruction for teaching mathematical economics at the secondary level. The study recommended that the use of reciprocal peer-instructional strategies seems to be appropriate in improving the academic achievement and interest of students in senior secondary schools.