PEER ASSESSMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT SCORES OF STUDENTS IN ECONOMICS IN JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF PLATEAU STATE

Abstract

In the study, peer assessment and achievement scores of Economics students in Jos South
Local Government in Plateau State were studied. This study was quasi-experimental research with one objective, one research question and one hypothesis. All the Senior Secondary Two (SS II) Economics students of government owned secondary schools in Jos South L.G.A was the population studied. The sample was made up of 89 students from two public secondary schools. The economic achievement test (EAT) was used to gather data on students’ academic achievement. To assess the instrument reliability, the scores of the first test were compared with scores on the second test and the reliability coefficient obtained was 0.781. For the research question, data were analysed through mean and standard deviation, and for the test of the hypothesis, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used. The results showed that the mean score of the experimental group was higher in the post-test than that of the control group with a mean difference of 7.844 in favour of the experimental group. The ANCOVA result revealed F value of 77.126, adjusted R-squared of 0.466 and p value of 0.000. The value is less than 0.05, this indicates rejection of the null hypothesis. This means that the achievement mean scores of students in the Economics taught by peer assessment is significantly different from the mean scores of students in the conventional Economics. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that peer assessment should be used by Economics teachers to enhance students’ academic performance and the use of peer assessment in teacher training course should be integrated into the teacher training curriculum.