EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE TEACHING METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF MALE AND FEMALE OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT STUDENTS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS IN POLYTECHNICS

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of cooperative teaching method on male and female
office technology and management students’ achievement in business communication
in selected polytechnics in South-East Nigeria. Two research questions guided the
study while two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study
was quasi-experimental which used pre-test, post-test non-randomized group design.
The population of the study consisted of 608 office technology and management
students while the sample size was 214 students drawn through simple random
sampling technique. A validated Business Communication Achievement Test (BCAT)
containing 40 items was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was
determined by administering the test instrument on a group of 30 students who were
not part of the study sample. Kuder Richardson 20 (KR-20) was used to establish the
reliability of the instrument to check for internal consistency of test items with
dichotomous choices. A reliability coefficient of 0.74 was obtained. The arithmetic
mean was used to analyze data in respect of the research questions while ANCOVA
was used to test the hypotheses. Findings indicated that there was no significant
difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught with
cooperative teaching method. There was no significant interaction effect between
teaching method and gender on students’ achievement in business communication. It
was concluded that cooperative teaching method enhanced both male and female
students’ academic achievement in business communication than the lecture method.
The implication of the study is that integration of cooperative teaching method by
OTM lecturers will improve students’ academic achievement. Consequently, it was
recommended among others that OTM lecturers should use cooperative teaching
method in teaching business communication.