Effect of Reciprocal Constructivist Instructional Approach on Middle Basic Science Students’ Academic Achievement of Kaduna Education Zone, Kaduna State

Abstract

Yunusa Idris

The study investigated the effects of reciprocal constructivist instructional approach on academic achievement among middle Basic Science students (JSS II) in Kaduna Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The population of the study consisted of seven thousand two hundred and fifty eight (7,258) students from the Junior secondary schools and two (2)Basic science students from 12 public schools. Two schools were randomly selected and assigned as experimental and control groups. A sample of 70 students (59 male and 11 female) was used for the study. A quasi experimental pretest and posttest design were employed. The two groups were pretested to determine their equivalence. The experimental group was taught some Basic Science concepts using a reciprocal constructivist instructional approach while the control group was taught the same concepts using
lecture method. A Validated instrument, Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT), with reliability co-efficient of 0.71 was used to generate data after treatment. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated. The data were analyzed using test. The results obtained showed that the group exposed to the reciprocal constructivist instructional approach achieved better and significantly higher when taught the concepts than their counterparts exposed to lecture method. It also revealed a significant difference in academic achievement among gender in favour of male after treatment. Based on the results, several recommendations were made among which reciprocal constructivist instructional approach should be employed as a teaching strategy by Basic Science teachers in teaching Basic Science subjects in Junior Secondary Schools.