EFFECTS OF CORPORATE PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH ON ECONOMICS STUDENTS' FINANCIAL AUTONOMY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, GIDAN-WAYA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determined the Effects of Corporate Problem-Solving Approach (CPA) on Economics Students’ Financial Autonomy and Academic Achievement in College of Education, Gidan-Waya, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Two research questions, two null hypotheses were formulated. A quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent control group design was formulated for the study. A sample of 75 economics II students’ combinations by simple random sampling techniques from six departments were used for the study. Two intact departments were randomly selected and assigned experimental and control groups respectively. The experiment and control groups were taught the corporate problem-solving approach (velocity of money) by the trained economics research assistants. The instruments, financial autonomy investment strategy - pre-test and post-test were developed, duly validated and reliability 0f equivalence, internal consistency and stability duly established (0.89 and 0.84 respectively) before using them for data collection. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at (p < 0.05) using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The result of data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental and control group, with the mean students’ financial autonomy scores of the CPA group being significant more than the control group; there was also a significant difference in the mean scores of economics students’ academic achievement when CPA was used. A major educational implication of the findings is that the use of CPA showed a significant difference in the students’ financial autonomy and academic achievement of economics students, thus the use of CPA will not only help reduce the problem of students’ dropout due to academic finance related problem, but will also encourage students’ financial autonomy and improve the academic achievement of students in economics among others.