EFFECTS OF PEER INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ONSTUDENTS’ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS BASIC SCIENCE ANDTECHNOLOGY IN MANGU, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the effects of Peer instructional strategy on students’ achievement and

attitude towards Basic Science and Technology in Plateau State, Nigeria. Five research questions

guided the study and four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significant. The

study employed the non- equivalent group pre-test- post-test quasi experimental design. The

population of the study was all the 2,195 Upper Basic 2 students in the 21 public schools. The

sample for the study was 164 students from two co-educational secondary schools in Mangu Local

Government Area of Plateau State. The instruments used for data collection were Basic Science

Achievement Test (BSAT) and Basic Science Attitude Inventory (BSAI). Kuder Richardson (K-R,

20) formula was used to determine the reliability coefficient of BSAT which yielded 0.799 while for

the BSAI, Cronbach alpha coefficient was used and it yielded 0.764. Descriptive statistics of mean

and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions and inferential statistics of

Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test all the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. The

results of the study showed that peer instructional strategy enhanced students’ achievement in

Basic Science and Technology more than lecture method. There is a significant difference between

the mean achievement scores of students taught Basic Science using peer instructional strategy

and those taught using lecture method (p = .000 < 0.05) Peer instructional strategy did not

influence students’ attitude towards Basic Science and Technology (P = .920> 0.05). Hence, there

is no significant difference between the mean rating attitude of female and male students taught

Basic Science and Technology using peer instructional strategy (P = .678>0.05). There is no

significant interaction effect of gender and the peer instructional strategy on students mean rating

attitude in Basic Science and Technology (P = .065> 0.05). Based on the findings it was

recommended that Basic Science and Technology teachers should not only guide the students on

the subject matter but allow them to interact with one another to learn through discovery. This

can foster confidence in the students and enhance their achievement in Basic Science and

Technology.