Effects of Self-directed and Social Collaborative Constructivism Instructional Strategies on Junior Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Basic Science in Adamawa State

Abstract

The study explored effects of self-directed and social collaborative 
constructivism instructional strategies on junior secondary school students’ 
academic achievement in basic science and technology in Jada Local Government 
Area of Adamawa State. A 3 x 2 quasi experimental design with intact classes 
was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 105 
Junior Secondary School two students from three schools in Jeda Local 
Governments, Adamawa State, Nigeria for the study. Participants were randomly 
assigned to conventional lecture, self-directed and social collaborative 
constructivism instructional activities. The treatment lasted for 8 weeks. One 
main instrument was developed by the researchers, validated and used; Basic 
Science and Technology Achievement Test (BSTAT, r = 0.86.). Two hypotheses 
were raised to test the significant difference between lecture, collaborative and 
self-directed constructivism instructional strategies activities in basic science and 
technology and significant difference between gender and students’ academic 
performance in basic science and technology in selected concepts. The two 
hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using 
mean, standard deviation, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t -test 
analysis. The study revealed that there was significant difference in the students’ 
academic performance between students exposed to lecture, collaborative and 
self-directed constructivism instructional strategies. The finding also indicated 
that there was no significant difference in the academic performance of male and 
female students It was therefore recommended that basic science and technology 
teacher should be encouraged to promote academic achievement of learners by 
involving constructivism-based learning activities.